Star Trek Voyager Forbidden Fruit
by Sithicus
Summary: Alain Desrochers has just discovered something about himself, which he finds quite frightening... Follow along as we continue the journey of Ensign Desrochers a misplaced traveler from the port of Earth Prime launched into the Omniverse to prepare him for
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:** I have decided to begin posting this tale; a tale filled with a certain level of deepness concerning the spiritual aspects, Alain Desrochers will discover certain parts of his destiny, the reason why he was sent into the Omniverse to begin with. And so we shall begin the third installment of my Star Trek Voyager chapters of the great novel known as Chrysalis.

**Disclaimer:** I make no claims to owning any of the character pre-established in the Star Trek universe, only those characters whom I have created such as Alain and the new villains of the piece about to be introduced in this very chapter belong to me. I trust it shall entice you; fill you with a strong thrill perhaps, do please Read & Review to let me know what you have thought of this opening chapter, and rest assured this time the bad guys are going to be truly **Evil**.

* * *

Prologue

After a long night in Sickbay recuperating from the effects of my merger with the Computer I entered the conference room or whatever you chose to call it; and took a seat at the table. Though I was not a member of the senior staff a seat was made available for me so we could discuss these new developments; the foremost involving Q and my testing, but also to help me figure out just how the hell I'd done what I'd done. I didn't like it; the power at my fingertips reminded me too much of Alumni and his Chaos God powers, but yet it was different and had seemingly come from within me. The Captain had mercifully not yet arrived, which I was more then grateful for; since I wasn't really looking forward to this conversation.  
Chakotay eyed me critically from his seat; Tom and Harry seemed undecided on the matter judging by their confused glances in my general direction, B'Elanna as usual was glowering at me and Seven seemed actually afraid for once. Neelix was the only one to greet me enthusiastically and that at least brought some small comfort to my otherwise truly frightened persona; though I hid my fears well.

"I'm here, sorry I'm late, but…" The Doc trailed off as he realized the Captain was not yet here. "Well I guess I'm not the last one here today." He muttered as he sat down.

"The Captain needed a little time to compose herself before confronting this situation." Chakotay explained eyeing me the entire time he spoke, which sent a chill down my spine; his steely gaze was enough to set the hairs on the back of anyone's head to stand on end.

"Marvelous; I'm a situation now; I suppose the Captain even stayed up all night worrying about me." I exclaimed raising my arms up in exasperation. "What's next fusion cannon roulette?"

"I hardly think so Ensign Desrochers." The Captain stated as she and Tuvok finally arrived and claimed their seats.

"Forgive the outburst Captain; I'm still a little out of it from the merger." I apologized with an ever so slight bow of my head.

"Understandable." She returned with a surprisingly gentle smile, which made me reconsider everything I'd contemplated might go down this morning. "Which brings me to my first question, why? Why didn't you tell me about Q and his plans to test you?" She demanded an edge now entering her tone; her last words were spoken with considerable distaste, like all sentient beings she abhorred the so called tests Q might have her perform.

"I thought he'd limit his little game to me, I should have realized he'd have something larger up his sleeve." I mumbled touching the scar still present from the space battle; I'd expended so much energy it was taking a longer time to heal then was customary, but I could deal with it.

"You still should have told us." Chakotay reprimanded. "Anything that endangers this ship; to which you are directly or indirectly the cause of is a very serious offense."

"Chakotay he didn't cause it." Tom countered apparently choosing to defend me; I smiled for the briefest of instances at that with some gratitude.

"That's beside the point, he knew Q was up to something and should have informed us so that we would be better prepared to deal with it." Chakotay shot back; I stood up angrily at that and tried desperately to keep my voice calm.

"You think this puny little bucket of scrap could survive THAT!" I exclaimed pointing to an image of the debris field floating outside the ship, the Captain had chosen to hold off from continuing the journey to Earth until after this meeting. "It would take a fleet of equal size and capabilities to handle that armada; we're talkin' Galactic Empire scaled vessels, Star Destroyers, TIE Fighters, Dreadnought class warships, the works!" I continued pacing now with my fury at the mans ridiculous accusations; I suddenly realized the absurdity of my words, not to mention the fact that the Federation people probably didn't know what a Star Destroyer was. So I stopped and took several deep breaths; Tuvok decided to speak up during my lull.

"How can we expect Ensign Desrochers to have known the extent of Q's plans?" He wondered in his typical logical tone. "He made a distinct error in judgment in choosing not to inform us; admittedly he is still only human; though that in itself is not a viable excuse. I hardly think it is necessary however to lay all blame upon the man for his mistake." He stated thoughtfully; I was calmer now and I turned back to face the crew, who were quite patient with me.

"Tuvok speaks words of wisdom; I chose incorrectly not to inform you, Q's interest in me occurred prior to my assimilation and I should have told you, Captain, at once. Instead I chose to keep it to myself; and for that I strongly apologize and request forgiveness." I paused to take a small breath and shot an icy glare upon Commander Chakotay. "All that aside; I think we shouldn't be so focused on the past, but more upon what exactly Q intends to do next." I stated turning back to glance out upon the starscape and the debris field of the vessels I had destroyed; an involuntary shudder passed down my spine. "Because you know he's going to step it up a notch; and I, if you'll forgive the cliché, seriously have a bad feeling about it."

* * *

The black mist floated across the barren world it had just laid claim to, it hovered outside a cavern drawn to a strong power within and resumed its corporeal form. He raised his hand shakily seeking out with tendrils of inky black power for the source of the power he was sensing, as he entered the cavern he was forced to duck his head lest he scrape it across the roof of the cavern.  
A great barrier of crackling blues and reds stood before him shimmering with the energies that had been unleashed countless billions of years in the far distant past, when this universe did not exist and another filled with foul beasts and beauteous wonders existed in its' place. With a single thought he shattered the prison and almost instantly they emerged; one of the forms was that of a white mist, chalky and indistinct as though a fog. The other was a reddish gold in color and danced about as though filled with great joy for at last being freed. White mist assumed corporeal form first with a deep rattling sound a thousand times deeper in tone to the Terran rattle snake, but nonetheless still just as fear inducing. He bowed at the waist before his savior and smiled revealing sharp pointed teeth; black coal like orbs rolling in their sockets as they once again became accustomed to physical form.

"Omnibussssssss; my lord." He greeted a forked tongue flicking past his teeth as he spoke causing the prolonged S sound.

"Rise Callopias." Omnibus granted his tone filled with deep arrogance and disdain even for his minions.

"It is about time." The now corporeal red mist exclaimed in a haughty feminine lilt that was filled with sultry seduction; she spread her angelic wings in the limited confines of the dark cavern and shot an icy glare upon her former lover.

"Now, now Serenity I was imprisoned as well remember." Omnibus stated taking a decidedly more cautious tone with this woman; out of the three she was in fact the only one powerful enough that, she could easily destroy his essence if she so chose.

"And now you're free thanks to me." An unknown voice proclaimed, all three entities glanced around for the source of this voice until they finally thought to look down. A strange bipedal creature stood before them; he was wearing a red and black uniform and wasn't very tall in comparison to the massive ancients.

"It'ssssssss a snack." Callopias remarked his mouth spreading wider than any humans with his grin.

"No, I wish to hear him first." Omnibus snapped his tail twitching in his annoyance.

"Smart decision you see I freed you for a purpose…" Q trailed off taking the moment to inch away from Callopias; if he wasn't careful these creatures could easily kill him, something that was uncommonly difficult for anyone other then the continuum.

"There is a new creature here with the power to destroy our kind; he has targeted me and pursued me relentlessly since arriving here. I wish you to terminate him; or failing that, corrupt him over to your side." He continued as he inadvertently adopted the human impulse to start pacing. "You see I have great plans that he could muck up; plans that could only benefit you should you succeed."

"Just why should we help you?" Serenity demanded moving closer to Q with an animal hunger and lust in her eyes.

"Because I freed you of course." Q snapped, Omnibus grinned darkly and Callopias began to approach him silently. "And because his master has also requested that he eliminate you once he's done with me." He hastily fabricated hiding a sly smile. "I witnessed him wiping out an entire armada of ships simply in his quest to reach me." He stated.

"Impossible!" Callopias exclaimed fully aware of what this new universe created from the death of the old had to offer, after all they could do nothing else; save watch its' evolution over the millennia.

"Is it?" Q asked disconcertedly. "You sensed his power Omnibus, before I freed you; do you recall?" He wondered. "It is new to him; unfocused, with one thought he could shatter you into countless pieces on both this plane and the other. Given enough time to master it…" Q trailed off as he now eyed the one known as Omnibus with a sly expression; he knew he had him and could manipulate him freely now. "Well; let's just say I'd hate to have to find another Overlord class Demon to take your place." Omnibus eyed this miserable little creature with great disdain and disgust; yet he knew he spoke truths, for he had indeed sensed the golden radiance. Callopias bristled at this manipulative little worm; his tongue flicking in and out of his mouth out of reflex, Serenity however remained neutral.

"Where is he?" He finally demanded ignoring the shocked expression on his trusted seconds' face.

"Traveling the stars aboard a space ship." Q replied creating an image for the sake of the creatures. "He is in the guise of a frail human attempting to garnish allies in his quest against us; there are numerous species aboard this vessel it should not pose too difficult a task to infiltrate it." He elaborated. "I can make it appear to all that you have always been there, but he will know; and yet won't understand what it is he knows."

"Callopias you shall study him closely; should Serenity fail to coerce him into our ranks, you shall be charged with slaying him." Omnibus ordered eyeing each of his minions briefly before shooting one final glare upon the wretched being before them.

"Of coursssssse." Callopias acknowledged bowing his head in respect of his masters' wishes.

"Good luck." Q stated having already created the false records of the two creatures having been aboard Voyager since arriving in the Delta quadrant, a very mischievous smile spread across his features before he vanished. "You will definitely need it my young Padawan." He added speaking silently to himself; and obviously referring to his current charge aboard Voyager, though if he knew the young man as well as he thought he did these Demonic entities would definitely not be posing any further threats in the near future.

Star Trek Voyager  
Forbidden Fruit

"How did you create that energy wave?" The Captain asked snapping me from my reverie; turning partially from the window presenting myself in profile I regarded her with a hint of despair.

"I don't have a clue." I finally admitted after several minutes of prolonged silence. "I was just so desperate to find any means to keep this ship intact; otherwise I would have lost my friends, Naomi…" I trailed off a pained expression crossing my features at the thought of the ship being destroyed because I was aboard. "I couldn't find any program that could help in the Computer's data banks, so I began to search internally; hoping to find some secret trick or gift from my nanoprobes…" I paused yet again to wet my tongue before I kept speaking. "At least that's what I believe I was thinking when I started the search; it's all so difficult to remember things clearly." I admitted; turning back to the stars I clasped my hands behind my back to stop from trembling and resumed my explanation.

"That power… Justice." I whispered. "It came from within; from my soul, and that scares me more then anything in the universe." I stated softly.

"Curious; why have you named it?" Tuvok wondered; I laughed at that and turned back to the assembled crew, their expressions ranged from sympathetic to outright disbelief and even some traces of fear.

"The name doesn't belong to the power." I replied something inside seeming to struggle up to the surface; an answer came as if from thin air and I snatched at it. "It's the name of the physical aspect of the powers; their manifestation into the golden aura, which surrounds me and transforms me from mere mortal into…" I paused seeking a source for the knowledge as well as a proper way to express myself.

"A champion." A slightly familiar voice spoke up; all eyes now turned to see Queenie standing near the entrance, she'd just flashed into the room without anyone realizing it.

"Now that's starting to sound like something spiritual." Tom pointed out. "Are you trying to tell us that he's some kind of… Servant for God or something?" He demanded; Queenie chuckled in that lilting tone of hers and she shook her head.

"You humans; all of you so content to take the answers science can prove and dismiss the others." She remarked; I shot her a knowing look, after all I'd been exposed to genuine Gods back in ancient Greece.

"Is this some remnant from Alumni?" I demanded fearfully; Queenie actually shot me a pitying look and shook her head.

"Alumni alone was given the powers of a God through the Ambrosia; when you forced the final separation of the two souls into two bodies he kept the God powers." She informed as calmly and politely as if we were discussing the weather or a favored recipe from our childhood.

"Pardon me, but Ambrosia?" Neelix asked seeking clarification; I sighed and turned back to the window.

"When I was in Greece, in the ancient world; myths were real." I began holding back the urge to growl with anger. "The one responsible for sending me there engineered it so that I would not recall the events surrounding me as a television show… In other words they gave me amnesia." I elaborated glancing back over my shoulder; I felt like brooding for now, which is why I wasn't really paying attention to them. "Because of this certain things happened beyond their control; I was mortally wounded in a battle against a man called Damocles. He had made a pact with Ares to kill me because I took his eye in battle; it was most primitive in those days, life by the sword and all that." I added with a small smile.

"Quite illogical." Tuvok commented; B'Elanna snorted and rolled her eyes, Harry and Tom were riveted to their seats as I went into more detail concerning my past exploits; none aboard Voyager knew the whole story after all.

"I had in my possession a tiny fragment of Ambrosia; misappropriated during an earlier skirmish with a woman by the name of Callisto." I stated rubbing the spot of my injury as a phantom pain entered my mind. "I partook of the delicacy; it changed me, for all who eat of the food of the Gods shall become a God themselves." I recited as though speaking a legend.

"This is all very fascinating, but does it have a point?" The Doc wondered; I chuckled despite myself and turned back to the group.

"Alumni and Alain Desrochers had two separate destinies; my soul was so conflicted and jumbled by the amnesia, and yet…" Here I paused yet again as a stray memory nagged at me, something seemed to be missing; Queenie strode forward and took my vacated seat propping her feet up on the table.

"He tapped into the powers to help save his friends there too." She revealed. "Because of this his destiny warred within until he was separated into two souls, but with one body. Alumni was in command; as the self proclaimed God of Chaos he decimated countless villages and even a city." She informed in a very bored sounding tone; I was at a loss, what she was saying bore a ring of truth to it. And yet I don't remember tapping into that power at anytime before the Draconian armada.

"Oh yeah; she kind of… Whoops." She trailed off and then without warning produced a glowing sphere of swirling energies, it was breathtaking to behold; and seemed to sing calling me to touch it.

"What is that?" The Captain demanded eyeing it suspiciously.

"A lost memory." Queenie replied; without another word she flicked it in my direction, I didn't think, I simply snatched it out of the air with my hand and instantly a vivid picture sprang up within my mind. The truth lay open before me and everything began to rush around in my mind; possibilities, uncertainties, even fears. I let out a cry of startled pain; and then as I continued to witness the truth behind what happened inside my mind I felt a presence, it warmed and comforted me all at once and I collapsed as tears came unabated.

"Ensign?" A voice called through the haze with great concern; I struggled back into reality and glanced up at both The Doctor and Captain Janeway, Queenie had already left no surprise there.

"I remember." I whispered looking about for the sphere; it too had disappeared and now confused expressions were shot my way. "God." I added before I felt everything shutting down as though I needed to reboot and I collapsed into stasis lock.

* * *

She watched in fascination as he was brought from the conference room; gently being transferred using a floating gurney, her eyes lingered hungrily on the man and the deep insatiable lust she felt returned. It had been so long; so very long, once he was back in good health she would approach him in his quarters, yes then she would take him as another conquest and perhaps this time he would be able to appease these urges like none ever could.

"Should we tell him we saw it too?" Tom asked eyeing the young man with a hint of awe as the Doctor ran a tricorder over him; the Captain pursed her lips in deep thought and finally shook her head.

"No Mister Paris; not until I'm certain as to what it is we just saw." She returned; Tom nodded in understanding, it was a lot to take in and Al had been at the center of it all since he'd been holding that sphere.

"Do you believe what the female Q showed us though?" Chakotay asked. "It's a bit much to trust that he's working for God, even if it is God from his own universe." He added.

"The existence of a being who could be considered as the creator of all things in the universe can neither be proved nor disproved." Tuvok pointed out. "There may have been some pretenders to the title; most notably the entity located within the center of our Galaxy. However; there is much about this universe that even the Vulcans do not know." He added; Tom shook his head.

"Forgive us if we seem skeptical Tuvok, but it's a lot to put our faith in with just the visions created by a Q to go on." He retorted; Harry glanced at Al curiously, and then turned back to his fellow crewmen.

"That's just it though; they weren't from the Q, but from his mind." He pointed out. "I think we can trust they're genuine."

"Personally I find this all most irrelevant." Seven spoke up the sound of her voice startling some of the others, she'd been so quiet up until this point they'd forgotten she was there. "It may answer the question as to how he performed such a feat, but it fails to address the real concern; is he a danger to this ship?" She pointed out; Chakotay silently nodded in agreement, the Captain however was still lost in thought and didn't want to jump to any conclusions based on what had just been presented to her.

"He has no control of this unearthly power." Chakotay pointed out breaking into her thoughts. "He used it to create a destructive blast large enough to wipe out an entire armada; true he appears remorseful concerning it, but if he can't control it he could wind up destroying the ship."

"No." Neelix spoke up succeeding in startling the crew once again. "Forgive me Commander, but I don't believe he is a danger to anyone; he may not have control, but he doesn't seem to be able to access this power unless pressed into extreme danger." He reminded; the Captain called for silence with a gesture and turned to face her crew.

"Enough of this; I won't put him aside and I will not start second guessing his motives or his potential threat level." She stated with strong conviction lacing her tone. "This man is an enigma even to himself; until Q's little test." She spat the term out with disgust. "He did nothing to countermand the effectiveness of this crew in its attempt to get back to Earth; he may be extremely afraid of these revelations when he wakes up, and he's definitely going to need some friendly faces." She paused to eye him with a hint of pity, though hid it from the rest of the crew. "I won't pretend to understand everything, but judging by what we've just been given; I believe he will be faced with a very difficult road ahead. And I for one intend to help him in any way I can; if I can, he saved this ship and her crew with no thought to his own life. That act of selfless courage alone is enough for me; we won't keep questioning his morals or re-evaluating my early decision to allow him to remain onboard, do I make myself clear?" She demanded at last finished her speech; one by one the senior staff nodded, B'Elanna was still strangely silent, but Janeway chose not to address it.

"Forgive me Captain, but then what exactly are we going to do?" Chakotay wondered, Janeway smiled now as she finally found a question she could actually answer.

"We're going to set a course back home and leave this mess behind; and try to support Ensign Desrochers as best as we are able." She replied; Tom grinned and quickly headed towards the Sickbay doors.

"In that case I'd better get back to the helm; you'll need the best pilot to steer past that hulk outside." He stated the twinkle of merriment never once leaving his eyes; he enjoyed a good challenge.

"If that's taken care of I suggest we all resume our duty shifts." The Captain stated; and with that the crew left, except for the Captain who paused once again and turned to the Doctor. "As soon as he's awake ask him to report to my ready room." She requested.

"Of course Captain." The Doc replied with a brief smile; and then he resumed his own duties, since there was nothing he could do to accelerate the process of waking the young man up.

To Be Continued; **Have I piqued your interest? Shall you enjoy this tale? Do some of you consider my character/story to be a blasphemous one? A pity if you do, but the destiny of Alain Desrochers has always been intertwined with religion in a way; and that won't be changing I can promise you... In the next exciting chapter learn more of Alain and his potential destiny and prepare to begin following our young hero on a journey towards his first encounter with the Demonic entities of the far distant past...**


	2. Chapter 2 Alain vs Serena Round One

**Author's Notes:** Thank you for the kudos my loyal readers; it has inspired me to update once again this week in order to continue to build suspense surrounding the coming of the villains and their plans for young Ensign Desrochers, a short update perhaps, but an update nevertheless.  
For those who may feel uncomfortable concerning the religious discussion between Alain and the Captin in this chapter I appoligize; this was not meant to make anyone uncomfortable, it's merely a means to express myself, though not necessarily my beliefs. I don't want anybody flaming me so if you don't feel like you can handle where this story is ultimately going please try to avoid reviewing with unfavorable words, I shall ignore them.  
As for the rest of you reading this; kudos for sticking it out with me, I look forward to continuing to supply you with hopefully the best entertainment I can muster... And please continue to let me know what you think of this.

* * *

I awoke in sickbay feeling profound joy, but also a major league headache; it was one of the worst things I'd felt in a long time and I groaned at the throbbing. The Doc immediately approached me and pulled out a tricorder running it over my person; after a scant few minutes I began to feel better.

"You appear to be fine, but next time I strongly advise you not to catch strange glowing spheres from midair." He chastised snapping the medical tool shut and giving me a clean bill of health.

"Next time I'll just ask Q to give me the abridged version." I quipped hopping off the biobed. "I need some time to think about all this." I added.

"Hold it." The Doc called before I could take more then three steps. "The Captain wishes to speak with you in her ready room." He informed sounding rather testy; he probably didn't like being a messenger boy any more then I liked being a pawn.

"I figured as much." I grumbled marching straight up to the doors and forcing them open with my gift out of reflexive habit.

* * *

The man stood silently observing his departure with intense curiosity; he was a tall man standing seven foot two with a skin so milky white and pale he was almost not human despite his appearance as such. To anyone he would pass as human without so much as a second glance, but he was not, his eyes were two dark orbs without any pupils. There was no hint of a soul beneath them; his teeth, too sharp for an Omnivore glinted in the lights of sickbay and his tongue briefly flicked out revealing that it was slightly more forked then a mammals'. Even his skin belied the human guise; it held a strange texture to it, which bore striking resemblance to a serpents scales and would put anyone ill at ease if they bothered to notice.

"Well lets' get going Mister Serpen, or did you intend to stand there for your physical?" The Doc demanded testily indicating one of the biobeds.

"But of courssssssssse not Doctor." Serpen replied moving over to the bed in question and sitting upon it with an all too friendly smile.

* * *

"You wished to see me Captain?" I asked upon entering the ready room; she was seated gazing out at the stars and sipping a cup of coffee, she turned to me with a strange expression on her face and I took an involuntary step back.

"Ensign; do you know your purpose?" She wondered taking me clearly aback with her forthright question; I considered it for a moment and realized that I did not, but the reason behind my trip into the Omniverse was now crystal clear.

"No Captain I do not; all I know is that I'm being trained for something, some great destiny." I replied truthfully; she nodded thoughtfully and took another sip of coffee turning partially back to the field of stars.

"I'm usually not one to start questioning beliefs, but what just happened now; I'm beginning to question whether or not such a thing as a divine creator could even exist." She admitted in a soft tone; I had to nod at that.

"It takes a little getting used to." I admitted. "Knowing about the Gods of Mount Olympus probably helped me, but you Federation people have become so far evolved that your sciences can prove or disprove just about anything." I remarked with a slight smile.

"There are things we can't prove, but we still believe in them." She countered; I had to nod in agreement at that. "But what we all saw, I didn't know if we should confront you on that; I told the crew not to discuss it with you, but…" She trailed off surprisingly at a loss for words; I sighed.

"Starting to question the decision you made about stranding us here in the Delta quadrant?" I wondered; she shot me a look and I chuckled softly. "It's a tad early in the established continuity, but it makes sense." I remarked.

"Early?" She repeated sharply; I smiled softly and shifted positions so I could gaze out at the stars with her.

"Forget it." I whispered. "The stars… There's just something about them that always seems to help calm the mind, isn't there?" I wondered glancing briefly at my Captain, after all I was a member of her crew; perhaps the only one besides Tuvok or Chakotay she'd ever get this vulnerable in front of now that the visions had been shared.

"Jean-Luc always did say something like that." She returned with a brief nod; I smiled at the thought of Picard and wondered what it would be like on the Enterprise.

"Captain; I can't help you very much, I just found out that I'm some kind of champion for God… A Champion of what I'm still not sure on, but I know my destiny holds something great in store for me." I began in a low voice. "Perhaps it would be best if you simply put it aside for now; my God isn't your God… At least; not in the actual sense, she's probably like the God that may have created this universe, but…"

"She?" The Captain questioned; I nodded.

"Yes; she, I… I felt her; for a moment the briefest amount of time imaginable, but I felt her." I explained. "She has great love for all of her creations; even for those from alternate universes, I hardly think she'd want to be the cause of so much doubt." I added; the Captain turned to me and openly smiled.

"Thank you Ensign; though you may not realize it that helped me more then I would have thought." She stated; I smiled in turn and gave a brief nod.

"A pleasure to be of some small service Captain." I returned and then took my leave; for I still had some meditating that I wanted to do and the Captain probably wanted time to think things over herself.

* * *

I sat in my quarters in my meditative pose; my legs crossed, my arms resting to either side; I had taken a few deep breaths to calm myself and then began to levitate off the floor. After my fourth deep inhale of breath I raised my right arm palm up wrist facing straight; as if I was Spider-Man preparing to swing off into the skyline of New York, unlike Seven's tendrils or indeed any of those of the collective mine happened to be situated within the inner wrist and not on top of my hand.  
Two small pinpricks located perpendicular to the veins in my forearm opened wider as they usually did and the tendrils shot out until they reached the desired length; concentrating deeply I began to manipulate them into images, which I had already perfected. Simple geological shapes, rudimentary images representing male or female, things like that; after several minutes of this I moved on to the more complicated images.  
Lions stalking Zebra, a tiger lazily sunning itself as it watched with detached airs, a Tyrannosaurus chasing after a jeep, the animal images had become a favorite of mine. The more complex the image I could muster the better; for it helped to hone my focus and discipline, much like the martial arts moves Xena and Iolaus had taught me. Now once again the time to test their dexterity arose; I let one fall limp as I focused on the broadswords' hilt resting on the display table I'd crafted out of certain debris from past salvage operations.  
Subconsciously I began to hum the theme from Star Wars that was used whenever Luke reached out for the Force; closing my eyes I visualized what I wanted the tendril to do, and surprisingly I felt things with it. The cool air brushing against it; the hard metallic hilt of the Olympian blade being wrapped by it, and then a sort of flexing as it tightened. _I wonder if this is how all Borg feel; or maybe it's more like Doc Ock and his tentacles._ I thought to myself as I began to pull the blade towards me; without warning the chime to my quarters rang and I lost all concentration, the broadsword clattered to the floor.

"So much harder to master grasping objects with them when I'm distracted." I muttered softly before turning my cold gaze upon the door. "Come." I called irritated; the doors opened and my breath caught in my throat, for a vision of serene beauty had just entered my room.

She stood an impressive six foot nine with rich auburn hair and full pouting lips; her eyes were an icy blue, though something about them felt off as though they were lifeless. And her complexion reminded me of a porcelain doll, far too inhuman; and yet this passed from my mind as she smiled and I seemed to lose all trepidations.

"Hello Ensign." She greeted with a tone that sounded like sultry chimes upon the wind; she swept into the room with a sway of her hips and her eyes darted about coming to rest on my broadsword briefly before turning back to me, she continued her slow sultry approach.

"How can I help you…" I paused seeking out her rank insignia. "Lieutenant?"

"I'm in no need of assistance." She replied with a sweet smile that seemed no more out of place then her close proximity. "I am here with a proposition." She added drawing ever closer to me; something flashing in her eyes for the briefest of instances.

"What kind of proposition?" I wondered my trepidations suddenly returning; something felt all wrong about this, she smiled that sweet smile again and this time I caught the predatory gleam in her eyes as she gyrated her body into my own her hips pressing into my side as her hands began to roam where they should not. It was like alert klaxons screamed within; as though the Death Star were under attack or the Borg Queen had returned and was proposing further acts of a sexual nature. I tried to back away, but she grasped my wrist and tried to pull me into a deep kiss even as she lowered us both down to the floor; her grip was like a vice so strong I could not break it of my own accord.  
"This isn't." I tried to protest, but she placed a finger over my lips with her free hand; though I could tell she wished to kiss me deeply.

"Hush; first we shall copulate and then you shall hear my proposition." She stated reaching to remove my uniform; with a simple thought gravity around us became lighter and I shoved her completely aside, though I couldn't begin to say why something about her screamed inhuman.

"I don't think so." I stated in a low threatening tone as I summoned the blade and found myself levering it upon her. The Olympian blade began to glow a strange blue, which bathed her in unnatural light revealing her to be even more inhuman then I could have believed. "Who are you?" I demanded.

"My name is Serena." She replied not the slightest bit afraid of my strange reaction. "And forgive me, I went too fast; there is just something about you that is so… Scrumptious." She revealed sounding almost apologetic. "I am here to request your company for an evening at my quarters, deck four." She added her tone sounding almost human once more and not the least bit predatory.

"I… Did someone put you up to this?" I asked surprising myself with the gentleness of my tone.

"You could say that." She admitted with a strange little smirk.

"Then forget it." I stated coldly. "I am not here to play stupid games with lonely or horny young Lieutenants." I added pointing to the door with the archaic blade. "Kindly leave." I ordered; my words clearly surprised her to a degree, she rose to her feet and turned to leave pausing once to look back at me with that same predatory gleam. I lowered the blade as she vanished from sight and let out a deep sigh as I shook my head to clear it. "Cold shower; definitely need a cold shower." I muttered disquietly eyeing the slight bulge that should not have been there with a hint of embarrassment; then I flipped the weapon back onto the table and quickly entered the refresher.

* * *

Jenny glanced up as Al moved to sit down beside her; he looked a little uncertain and she really couldn't blame him. Rumors circulated like mad on a ship this isolated; she smiled gently at her friend and reached out a hand to pat his own.

"Don't sweat it little bros." She returned her cheeks flushing a little as she realized that once again she'd let that nickname slip out. "We know you wiped out that enemy armada to save this ship and we don't hold it against you; or feel any different towards you." She added; Al sighed in obvious relief.

"Thanks Jenny; some of the looks I've been getting make me want to scream, its assimilation all over again." He muttered; Jenny shook her head, she could easily forgive any strange new developments because she knew his personality so well after all this time. He was a nice guy and generally cared for all his friends, although she was extremely curious to know where this strange new power had come from, but she knew better then to pry.

"So; are we still on for the holodeck session?" She asked. "What was it again? Another GIJoe?"

"No; I decided against going for the combat programs this time, we're going to visit a little place called Jurassic Park." He revealed with a glowing smile; Jenny shook her head, half the programs he said didn't involve combat usually wound up with some level of strenuous physical exercises.

"I suppose I shouldn't ask, but why Jurassic?" She wondered; he grinned slightly in a mischievous light and shook his head.

"You'll just have to wait and see." He returned evasively; Jenny shook her head a second time laughing quietly, sometimes he could just be so child like.

* * *

Megan's Personal Log: According to the schedule we made up a while ago Jenny should be enjoying herself on the holodeck with Al; we don't go as much as we used to, but for some reason we can't stay away from his programs… Then again we've been hanging out with Tom and Harry a lot more then Al of late; it's kind of hard sometimes.  
I mean; Al's starting to distance himself again, though he's probably not aware of it, he seems to spend more time in his quarters working on some project or another. I'd seriously like to know just what it is he's up to, but I don't want to pry; he's still our friend after all and what he does on his own time is his business.  
Some of the crew has been talking of late; Sam was just saying the other day that a lot of this crew seems to just ignore Al's presence, even after the incident the other day. They've got their own lives to live and he's got his; Sam really wants him to find a few more friends, but Jenny and I don't think we should push him. After all he's got Tom and Harry too, to a lesser extent; he really doesn't need a lot more friends.

I think I'll go see what Tom and Harry are up to; Jenny really wants me to try dating again, but I'm not so sure about that and Tom was the only decent guy on this ship, except for Al of course and maybe a few others, but none of them interest me that way… Computer end recording.

To Be Continued: **Boy that Lieutenant Serena is certainly pushy isn't she, I expect she won't be giving up though considering who she really is... And if you don't know or it wasn't clear via the writing Serena is indeed the self-same Serenity that was introduced alongside Callopias and Omnibus in the previous chapter, just as Serpen is in fact Callopias.  
In the next chapter things will be slowly building up to one of the tried and true Star Trek staples... The ever faithful Holodeck malfunction... Be here in six or so days give or take when the Holodeck plans are made and the next few chapters break away into the realm of Holodeck Fantasies.**


	3. Chapter 3 Blissful Ignorance

**Author's Notes**: What joy I succeeded in creeping you out with Liuetenant Serena, which was my goal; she will have a much bigger role as this story progresses I hope you'll grow to love rather then hate the character especially once we reach the halfway point on this story.  
And so without further ado I present the next installment; a chapter which will set up my two possibly three part follow up chapters... **Problems on the Holodeck!**

* * *

Personal Log Stardate… Does it really matter? The ship has been transgressing this void for the past two months; it is beginning to put a strain on the crew, my own nerves haven't been doing very good, but at least I can cope. Work has progressed quite nicely on my personal tricorder; I have managed to adapt seventy-five percent of known Starfleet medical tools into the tricorders' casing, unfortunately not all of it seems to work yet.  
I've also duplicated five more of the Doctor's mobile emitters; although only one of them has received a program at this date, I have managed to begin the process of replicating the tools to build a lightsaber… The fact that I don't know enough about constructing one of those notwithstanding; it should be easy to build one, I could just replicate one, but I've decided to prolong the experience. Now I've got a precious engagement to tend to, end recording.

* * *

"Ouch!" I exclaimed as the lights went completely out; _damn, that's what I get for walking around before the power went out._

"Who's there?" A voice asked.

"Ensign Desrochers." I replied sarcastically; a hand reached out in the dark and grabbed my own.

"Come with me Ensign." The voice ordered; now I could recognize it as the Captain, which made sense I was on my way to see her after all. "I can't see in the dark and my palm light just died; I need you to lead me to storage locker four." She requested; I shrugged, though she probably couldn't see it in the pitch black.

"My optics are only good for so much, Captain." I returned switching automatically to night vision mode; the ship came into eerie green focus, amazing that I could see at all.

"It's better then nothing." She returned with a smile; I proceeded to lead her to the designated area, once there she activated the light atop a phaser rifle.

"Incidentally Captain; good to see you out of your quarters." I remarked as she now took point.

"Thank you Ensign." She returned; together we made our way down dark corridors, once we reached a certain junction we could see the light from someone else. Then the alien moved in to attack and the Captain fired; it seemed to vanish, leaving us with Chakotay and Mister Neelix. "Follow me." She ordered us.

"Yes mame." Neelix returned in a frightened tone of sorts; he had a terrible fear of nothingness if I recalled correctly.

* * *

"How about a little light over here?" I heard B'Elanna call out a short time later as we neared engineering.

"We can do better then that." The Captain returned as we entered engineering fully. "This power cell should be enough to get emergency power back online." She informed; Neelix and Chakotay were carrying it, I was bringing up the rear with another phaser rifle, _you know these are a lot more fun to handle then those palm units; kinda reminds me of Alien._

"Up here!" B'Elanna cried alerting us to her position. "We'll hook it up to the EPS manifold." She elaborated; I nodded and took the device, generating a stable gravity well I floated it and myself up to the second level.

"Special delivery." I quipped good naturedly.

"Just get it over there." She snapped. "And be careful." She added.

"I am not a klutz." I shot back indignantly and swiftly did as she ordered; together we got the power cell hooked up and in place, emergency power was almost instantly restored.

"The warp cores' online." She stated redundantly.

"Janeway to the bridge; report." The Captain ordered tapping her com badge; I tuned out Tuvoks' reply and made my way out of engineering I decided to return to my quarters, I'd had enough of this adventure for today.

* * *

Omnibus stood impatiently upon the dead husk of a world; his sight was clearly being hampered by someone, perhaps the fool humans' master. For whatever reason he was only getting intermittent flashes of clarity surrounding his subordinates. Callopias was performing true to form; more often then not standing or seated among the background players as he watched his prey in silent patience.  
Serenity however had not approached him again since the failed first attempt; instead she remained elusive and secretive, which was also her way and Omnibus chose not to intercede. And yet the demonic creature from eons past could not curb his own impatience; or his disgust with this pale, seemingly frail amoeba.

"This game has been played before; for countless eons I have waited for freedom and instead of forcing these primitive mortals into subjugation I am caught up with one puny flea." He growled speaking more to himself then any third parties who might be listening.

"Ah; and therein lies your flaw." The creature who had freed him remarked popping up beside him without so much as a warning. "This one is not to be underestimated; his power is far more dangerous then you could possibly know." He added a smile never once leaving his visage.

"How could one insect possess such power?" Omnibus demanded incredulously.

"That I'm afraid I do not know; the truth behind his powers is a mystery even to me." Q returned lying through his teeth and enjoying every minute of it; he was confident now that Omnibus and his ilk would do nothing against him. And yet this phase of the young man's training was exceedingly dangerous; if he were to fail in understanding his purpose he could very well be lost, and then she'd really dig into him. "But you should do well to heed my warnings." He added almost as an afterthought; Omnibus glowered, but chose to remain silent and Q simply snapped his fingers and vanished.

* * *

"You play a dangerous game." His wife; or what would be considered as one to humans and countless other sentient species remarked as he returned to the collective.

"Which makes it all the more thrilling." Q returned with a smile and a kiss upon the forehead of his sleeping son. "Wouldn't do for junior here to have no place to live after all." He added.

"Yes well; I just hope our charge is capable of living up to the challenge." She returned turning her gaze upon the human in question as he did his best to ignore the events surrounding him and work tirelessly upon perfecting his tricorder. "He doesn't seem as interested in playing the Ensign as he used to be." She remarked.

"Yes well; he's become lost in his work I'm afraid. But he still adheres to his duties when necessary." Q pointed out; if anyone who knew the irrepressible one could see him in this environment they might not recognize him. He was acting decidedly unlike himself; and yet in certain respects he was the same old Q he'd always been.

"Why does he insist on creating those?" She demanded pointing to the mobile emitter he was programming; Q smiled with a hint of pride in his expression.

"Because my dear Q; he's simply following the little suggestion I nudged into his brain while he was regenerating that one time." Q returned; his other turned to him with a look of clear confusion on her face and he cackled madly with glee. "Trust me; he's going to need his little toys once he passes the next test." He revealed cryptically before rushing off yet again for some reason that escaped her; she sighed and looked down upon the sleeping toddler.

"Your father is taking a far too hands on approach in this matter for his own good." She remarked disquietly; fortunately the rest of the continuum was still unaware of Q's current pet project that was some small comfort at least.

* * *

I was walking down the corridor currently lost in my work when the Delaneys' came up beside me wearing a most ludicrous looking ensemble; I think the crown like head pieces really topped it off.

"Hello Ensign." Megan remarked; I grunted a slight hello and resumed examining the pad in my hand still trying to figure out how to build a lightsaber.

"Harry won't give me the time of day." Jenny complained with a sigh.

"That's because he's got the hots' for me." Megan equally complained with a growl; I rolled my eyes, _why did I get chosen for these venting sessions?_

"Maybe if you started dating Al here; he'd see the light." Jenny suggested patting my shoulder; I shot her a brief glare, part of me was still touchy when it came to close proximity of female crewmembers, that unknown Lieutenant had really done a number on me.

"Excuse me?" I repeated with a note of annoyance; though I tried to rein my temper in since she was my friend. "Call me crazy, but I hardly see how making Megan further unattainable is going to make you more desirable Jenny." I pointed out. "Nothing's going to make him realize how perfect you are." I added losing my bluster as my mind snapped out of work mode; Jenny smiled at my compliment and Megan rolled her eyes, my flair for the dramatic never did bring a smile to her lips.

"You're a sweet guy." Jenny returned. "I'm glad we managed to stay friends." She added pulling me startlingly into a hug.

"Yes; you are a good friend." Megan agreed with a smile; I lowered my pad and smiled myself, it was hard not to around these two.

"Thanks." I stated. "Perhaps one of these days you'll join me for another holodeck excursion." I wondered curiously considering it had been a few months since the last adventure, Jenny sort of canceled all future plans after nearly being eaten by a T-Rex. Both women grinned and turned off, pausing briefly to look back at me.

"If your program is half as entertaining as the ones' we used to enjoy; I guarantee it." Megan returned with a wink; Jenny shot me a playful seductive smile and then both women left, I shook my head with a small grin and resumed studying my schematics, which I'd switched over to the medical tricorder so that I could forget that annoying lightsaber plan for now. _Maybe if I recalibrated the micro-replicator I could get it to work better…_

* * *

"Why do you insist on teasing him with those expressions; it's really unseemly considering he's like a Brother to us." Megan pointed out as the twins reached their quarters and began to change for their duty shift.

"I can't help it; sometimes he's just too sexy for his own good." Jenny countered with a small sigh.

"I thought you had the hots for Harry." Megan teased a sly smile on her lips.

"Oh leave me alone; I can flirt with whoever I want, Harry's never going to be interested in me in that way anyway." Her sister shot back with a sigh; Megan patted her shoulder sensing the hurt behind her words.

"Don't feel bad about it; this is Harry Kim we're talking about, he's had his fair share of bad romances." She reminded; Jenny sighed a second time and smiled gratefully at her sibling, at least she could always count on Megan when she needed it.

"I just hope that next time we hang out with Al it won't be in any place called Jurassic Park." She stated firmly stripping off the final bit of outerwear and picking up her uniform; Megan smirked, she'd actually tried that program with Tom and it was a lot more fun then Jenny gave it credit for. She was just sore because Al hadn't warned her about the whole Dinosaur thing before they went in and she wasn't properly prepared; Megan knew for a fact that Jenny hated to look like a wimp and she'd screamed like a girl when she'd first run into the T-Rex.

"Relax sis, I'm sure Al will pick something tasteful." She returned hiding her smirk carefully.

* * *

Serenity smiled as she joined her fellow ancient at the table a tray of food in hand, Serpen greeted her silently and did his best not to open his mouth to wide as he partook of another delicate morsel.

"At least the Talaxian knows how to cook." He complimented; a rarity in and of itself.

"The target is most elusive; and quite puzzling, no male has ever turned me down before." Serenity remarked as she began to eat herself; both entities truly did not require sustenance in the literal sense, but they enjoyed the act more then the nourishment.

"I would think you would relish the challenge." Serpen returned with a slight chuckle; he'd been practicing of late and managed to stop hissing everywhere he went, though it did require a great deal of effort.

"Have you learned anything?" She asked curiously slowly savoring the next bite and eliciting several male crewmen to watch with reckless abandon as she licked her morsel seductively.

"I can not judge his combat capabilities accurately." Serpen complained slamming his fork down angrily; with most eyes glued to Serenity he took a chance and used his tongue to snatch up a piece of meat from his plate. "He has been locked in his quarters for most of the time while we are forced to work these primitive duty shifts." He added his eyes seeming to glow with fury.

"Maybe you have been delayed, but I have no need to partake of these duty shifts; as you call them." She returned slyly; Serpen growled low in his throat and would have said something more if a strange tingle hadn't passed down his spine, the door opened and the young quarry in question entered. He glanced around; his eyes briefly falling upon Serenity, with a shudder he quickly moved to fetch his own meal and deliberately moved to the far corner of the room where he joined two women.

"Ah; opportunity knocks, I shall listen to his conversation." Serpen decided carefully picking his empty tray up and returning it; Serenity smiled as she watched him moving softly towards their prey, in time she hoped he would be finally taken out of her hair by this young delight. Turning back to her meal she paid the rest of the developing event no mind; and played with her food for the amusement of her adoring public.

* * *

Diligently avoiding the temptress and her strange companion I joined Megan Delaney and Sam Wildman as I regarded my choice of meal with a sour grimace.

"I never thought I'd actually be the one saying this, but I'm sick of Leola root stew." I muttered before taking a bite of Gumerian nut bread.

"Naomi too." Sam sighed. "She's refused to eat the past two days." She added; I glanced up with a hint of concern coloring my expression.

"That's not good." Megan observed for the both of us. "A growing girl needs her nourishments." She stated sagely; I nodded at that.

"Perhaps there's something I can do to help." I offered; Sam eyed me hopefully. "Naomi isn't sad or depressed or anything?" I wondered curiously.

"Well; she hasn't been able to see you in months." Megan pointed out a sly smirk spreading across her face. "And you have kinda imprinted yourself on the girl."

"I have?" I asked clearly not believing her; Sam shot me a very strange look, her lips quirked up subtly and she nodded. "You gotta be kiddin' me." I exclaimed in perfect mimicry of Rattrap.

"Face it Al, you're a good father figure." Sam stated her cheeks flushing slightly. "And Naomi misses you; Neelix can't even get her to cheer up." She admitted; I eyed her with raised brow and took a few more bites of bread mulling over her choice of words. With a heavy sigh I finally conceded that she had a point, not only had I spent hours at a time with her when Sam was on duty shifts and Neelix couldn't baby-sit. But I'd also helped to keep her safe on more then one occasion; it was only natural that she'd enjoy having me around, considering that she didn't have her own father aboard.

"She's going to be heartbroken when I have to finally leave here." I muttered pushing my half-eaten meal aside; the taste had turned to ash in my mouth. "Looks like I've got a Ktarian to cheer up." I remarked eyeing Sam briefly and turning my gaze to Megan. "Any ideas?"

"The holodeck has always cheered her up on the occasions she uses it." Sam informed reaching up briefly to pat my shoulder for some reason I failed to understand just then; Megan smiled as she recalled an earlier conversation we'd had concerning the holodeck.

"Perhaps your Star Wars program would be the right one." She suggested; I thought about it for less then a second and then a wide grin spread across my face.

"I think I've got a better idea, you tell Naomi that if she agrees to eat her meals again she can see me in a day and half's time; I've got some programming to do first." I stated leaping back to my feet and brushing past someone without a second glance; Megan and Sam shared curious looks, but didn't say anything. Serpen on the other hand was smiling darkly; some programming of his own might just be in order.

To Be Continued; **Holodeck Problems, read it next time on Forbidden Fruit and prepare to enter a world of... Imagination.**


	4. Chapter 4 Problems on the Holodeck P1

**Author's Notes:** I can't hold this off anymore; I'm just so ecstatic about what happens on the Holodeck that I can't wait for any further reviews from more loyal readers, I shall therefore skip the preliminaries and get right to the story...

Disclaimer: I put one up in the first chapter for Star Trek, but now I must do so for the characters on the Holodeck... I make no claims to owning any of them; however that doesn't meanI can't use them in my Fanfics... So please don't sue.

* * *

A day and a half later; exactly as planned Sam and Naomi were waiting in the holodeck for Al, the program was already running and they were standing on the corner of a street that had numerous faceless buildings upon it, Megan and her sister Jenny were also with them waiting.

"Now why do you suppose it's called Main Street?" Jenny wondered regarding the street sign standing within an inch from them; it looked rather ordinary, if a tad more vibrant then anything in the real world might look.

"Who cares; I'm more interested in why we were dragged along." Megan muttered folding her arms across her chest and fiddling with the beige top she'd chosen to wear.

"Harry and Toms' idea, they said they'd be joining us." Jenny reminded. "Besides I thought you wanted to join Al for another holodeck session?" She added slyly.

"Yes well; I didn't have this exactly in mind." Megan countered still sulking.

"I thought Tom was seeing B'Elanna?" Sam spoke up curiously.

"He is, but Harry refused to come without Tom; and so the two of them made a deal with her." Jenny revealed with a knowing smile; without warning a little white car with red, white and blue racing stripes and the large number fifty-three plastered on the doors and hood pulled up and Al hopped out of the drivers' seat. He froze when he caught sight of the Delaneys' and scowled slightly as Tom and Harry at last arrived.

"Wow; a Volkswagen, and one of the classics to boot." Tom exclaimed eyeing the car with a practiced eye.

"This was supposed to be for Naomi." Al grumbled.

"And this means your friends aren't invited?" Harry asked with a small smile; Al sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Of course not, but you guys might not have as much fun." He replied glancing down the street towards one of the only buildings that appeared to be open; great big spotlights were dancing about it and strange characters came driving up or arriving in other manners.

"We'll be the judge of that." Tom stated. "Can I drive?" He asked with an eager glint in his eye, surprisingly the car honked at Tom and rolled away from him.

"Sorry, but Herbie's kinda temperamental when it comes to who he lets in the drivers seat; and Mister Disney would never let me hear the end of it if he got in an accident." Al replied with a wry grin already playing along with the program; he'd actually missed being able to cut back and unwind himself, he'd been far too busy with his pet projects of late.

"Herbie." Harry repeated bemusedly.

"The so called Love Bug." Tom pointed out with a chuckle and a knowing smirk; he moved around to the passengers' side. "I suppose that means we'll let him drive." He added with another chuckle.

"A car with a personality?" Megan questioned; Al nodded and held the seat back for her to climb in.

"All aboard." He quipped; Herbie beeped indignantly and Al offered an apologetic look. "Sorry pal, but I feel like I'm seven again." He remarked as the women jockeyed for position in the back seat; considering how small Herbie was Naomi wound up in her mothers lap and Harry had to let Jenny sit in his, the woman clearly didn't mind.

"Is Herbie one of those Transformers?" Naomi wondered curiously; Al chuckled as he climbed into the drivers' seat and patted the dash.

"Herbie has a soul, but he's no Transformer; he's just one of the many myriad characters dreamed up by someone a long time ago." He replied as Herbie pulled out from the curb and started to trundle down the street, which seemed to have gotten longer since they arrived.

"How can a car have a soul?" Harry asked impertinently from the back seat; Tom shot him a look.

"Just go with it Harry; obviously I haven't done a good enough job teaching you about the classics." He stated; Harry shut up and the rest of the trip was had in silence.

* * *

I smiled as Herbie drew closer to the House of Mouse; for some reason seeing the place from the outside, even knowing it was a computer generated image based on a fictional locale brought that old nostalgic feeling out. Herbie honked angrily as he swerved to avoid Mr. Toad and a rather speedy formula one racer who happened to be racing him.

"Ah go shove it ya Autobot reject!" The Decepticon shot back blowing some smoke; Herbie tooted his horn angrily and revved his engine.

"I know, I know; Drag Strip has a real attitude problem, but so do all the Stunticons." I muttered soothingly patting his dash yet again; it was easy to let your imagination run loose and be swept away with this program.

"Hyuck; heya Al." Max greeted as I passed him the keys climbing out of the car; the others joined me on the strip of red carpet leading into the sprawling entrance of the building, Jenny glancing up at the huge sign proclaiming this to be the House of Mouse.

"Evening Max, take good care of Herbie ok; maybe give him a good wash and wax." I suggested; the little car honked happily and Max chuckled.

"Not a problem Al; enjoy tonight's show." He called as I led the group onwards into the lobby; there were so many guests cluttering the area waiting to be seated, and some of them were behaving rather poorly.

"I can see why you thought we wouldn't enjoy ourselves." Tom observed with that ever present grin of his. "This isn't exactly an ideal place for romance, or adult entertainment." He added with a wink.

"Well I did warn you." I reminded queuing up behind the line of guests and glancing at my watch in annoyance.

"Hey I don't mind." Jenny piped up. "It's an odd place to relax, but it isn't the worst place you could be; and it is different from Star Wars." She added with a beaming smile pointed my way; I shifted uncomfortably as both sisters sidled up and gave me a kiss on the cheek, I glanced around curious to know just what the hold up was.

"Excuse me; hello, I'm the lord of the dead, I don't need a reservation." A loud voice proclaimed at the head of the line; I rolled my eyes.

"Maybe I shouldn't have randomized the program so much." I muttered in annoyance; Naomi was eyeing the place with wonder in her eyes, she loved visiting make believe worlds the best.

"The rules apply to everyone Hades, please step aside and let the guests who took time to phone ahead enter." Daisy Duck requested with a hint of demand in her tone; Hades' flaming hair flashed red and he clenched his hands trying thinly to keep his rage in check.

"ARAH! I've got to maim someone, oh Pain, Panic, could you come here just a moment?" He exclaimed switching from extreme rage to calm collectiveness rather quickly and he moved off as Daisy had asked looking for his henchmen.

"Not very polite; is he." Harry remarked as the line began to move once again.

"For him, that is polite." A rather large bear remarked from in front of us. "Then again; what do you expect from one of the villains?" He wondered chuckling a little as he turned back to the desk.

"Hello and welcome to my club." Donald greeted from beside us reaching up and earnestly shaking Tom's hand, he moved on to Harry before the other could object.

"But the sign outside says House of Mouse." Megan pointed out confusedly; I shot a nervous glance between the two of them as Donald began to fume muttering something under his breath.

"Er; calm down Donald, she's new here and doesn't know things." I hastily stated smoothing over some ruffled feathers.

"That's no excuse." Donald began before breaking off into a rant; I quickly steered my group of guests past the erratic duck with a sigh.

"When he gets like that he can go on for hours." I explained softly; Harry was eyeing Megan incredulously.

"You understood that?" He asked out of the side of his mouth as we drew up to the desk.

"Of course; didn't everybody?" Megan asked in return glancing between the rest of us; I let out a slight chuckle and shook my head.

"Donald is one of those characters that rarely can be understood on the best of days; some of us are better equipped to hear him then others though." I explained for her benefit; that's when I noticed the lineup behind us all of them glaring at us because we were causing a hold up, mostly because Donald was still in a rage and wasn't letting anybody else pass. "Er; I think it's time to get inside." I stated nervously quickly tapping Baloo on the shoulder.

"What's up?" He asked politely; I pointed behind us with my thumb.

"Could get ugly real fast, mind if we skip ahead?" I asked; Baloo chuckled and moved aside to let us pass.

"I'll be glad to run interference Al buddy." He returned; I nodded a silent thanks and quickly moved up to Daisy.

"Name?" She asked in a bored tone not even bothering to look up from her computer screen; I cleared my throat to better get her attention.

"Alain Desrochers." I informed sounding important. "And special guests." I added; Daisy looked up with a beaming smile.

"Of course; of course, you're always welcome here, even without a reservation." She began hurriedly scribbling my name down on the guest list and putting a check beside it.

"Hey!" I heard Hades growl in the distant background.

"Er; thanks Daisy." I began; she grabbed my wrist to keep me from running off.

"I just loved you in that whole Disneyland thing; do you think I can get your autograph?" She asked hopefully; I chuckled slightly and scribbled a signature in her autograph book next to a page with an indecipherable scrawl upon it. "Oh thank you, thank you." She gushed admiring her new autograph; with a furtive glance behind me at the others I boldly stepped past the front desk and led the way into the club proper.  
The band instantly began to play Mickeys' theme and my heart lifted considerably as I maneuvered our way through the tables filled with guests; from Cobra Commander and several other higher ups, to Aladdin and Jasmine enjoying a romantic moment alone; free of Abu or Genie for once. The others let their eyes wander around the room clearly impressed; and perhaps amused at the numerous three dimensional representations of cartoon characters interacting with one another. Naomi was enjoying herself even more so because she was the proper age to still believe in such wonders; our table happened to be situated right up front in one of the booths, the group sat down first and I took a moment to note our neighbors making sure there was no sign of the Mad Hatter or the March Hare.

"So; what exactly was the plan for this evening?" Sam asked with a knowing smirk; I sensed a reddening in my cheeks as I regarded her.

"Well, ah; really just to cheer Naomi up. This place always brought out a laugh from me and I figured since she wanted to spend more time with me this'd be the perfect place." I replied fidgeting a little with the tablecloth.

"Well I like it." Naomi stated; she hadn't said much since coming here. "Thank you Ensign." She added climbing over into my lap and giving me a big hug; I eyed her nervously, the gesture being somewhat new to me since none of my little cousins ever did this and I didn't have any kids of my own yet. _Can I even have kids now that I'm a Borg?_

"You're quite welcome little bit." I returned the gesture adopting my favorite pet name for the youngest Wildman.

"Why 'ello dere." A strongly accented voice suddenly greeted. "How nice to see you back here you kooky kid you."

"I'm not a kid anymore Von Drake." I stated with a tiny wistful sigh.

"You're right dere, so you here to test my latest invention?" The animated duck asked; Jack Fenton popped up beside him without warning.

"It's a Ghost tracking machine that really works." He exclaimed enthusiastically; I smirked at that, it was fun adding all these different cartoon characters into the mix and the kid in me really loved interacting with them.

"Uh; no." I replied a bit louder then I'd intended in my haste to avoid any long scenes.

"I see; well, we can't all experience the genius that is me, still it's a real honey of an invention if I do say so myself." Von Drake remarked before leaving us alone accompanied by Fenton.

"Rather conceded isn't he." Tom remarked.

"Not really; he's just a little misguided, I think I preferred him when he simply practiced psychology." I stated with another sigh.

"'Scuse me Mister Desrochers, but Mickey asked me to come get you." Horace interrupted from beside Megan; I instantly began to feel the tingling of warning bells in the back of my head.

"He wants to see me?" I asked clearly perplexed, this was not part of the program I'd created for the night.

"Yep; it's kinda important." Horace confirmed nodding imperceptibly towards the back stage area.

"Well; I'm not one to disappoint the head cheese." I stated jubilantly climbing to my feet. "If you'll excuse me for a moment." I added politely addressing my guests and following after Horace.

"I don't think that was part of Al's program." Tom stated speaking low so as not to upset Sam or Naomi who had become engrossed with the show on screen.

"The way he was reacting it certainly looked that way." Jenny agreed. "I sure hope nothing's wrong." She added concern for her friend briefly slipping across her features.

* * *

Serpen smiled as he slipped out of the holodeck and headed towards his quarters where he could monitor the situation in private; with the neural link established it was simplicity itself to pull out certain elements that would fit the parameters of his current program.

"Up to your old tricks." A female voice observed from behind; he whirled to face Serenity with a hint of displeasure.

"Of coursssssse, how elsssssse will I observe hisssss fighting abilitiesssss Serena?" He demanded with a twisted smile; his hold on his speech patterns slipping in his agitation with the Goddess.

"Yes, well two can play that little game." Serena remarked softly as Serpen vanished into the turbo lift; with a quick mental command her clothing changed to something more appropriate for the program currently running, bypassing Serpen's command overrides and lockdown she slipped into the holodeck intent on her prey once again.

* * *

"What?" I blurted causing Mickey to flinch. "That's impossible." I exclaimed knowing full well that the parameters of my program did not include this development.

"I wish you were right, but everything I've said is true, Ansem is back." Mickey stated trembling at the mention of the name; and for good reason, my creative side had fully fleshed out the program to include some ideas and germs of ideas I'd had back home. I was a self-proclaimed accomplished writer after all.

"But that's not in the program." I muttered to low for Mickey to hear. "Unless…" Realization dawned and I ran a quick check internally with the holodecks computers; someone had tampered with it, somehow accessing my own thoughts to recreate the program. And they'd locked us in, which meant we had to see this to the end. "This is not good." I exclaimed.

"There is some good news though." Mickey piped up pulling out a small keychain from his shirt pocket. "Somehow Oathkeeper found its' way here, which means…" He trailed off expectantly.

"The Keyblade is here too." I finished taking the proffered key chain and examining it closely. "I'm gonna need some help; my friends should be able to lend a hand." I mused aloud.

"Us too?" Donald asked from behind me, I turned to find both Donald and Goofy dressed in their court wizard and captain of the guard outfits respectively. I couldn't help, but smile as I saw them wearing them; it brought back fond memories of hours spent just playing a game.

"Always." I stated seriously. "After all it wouldn't be a majestic quest without you." I added with a tiny sigh as I turned to head back out into the main room. "Now I've got to tell my friends, and this was supposed to be just a fun little outing." I added with another sigh, _you ever notice how there always seems to be a holodeck malfunction, which traps a group of people together? Of course they're usually not engineered; when I get my hands on the jerk who did this I'll slag him first and ask questions later… I don't relish having to delete my neural link codes a second time; of course nobody needs to know they still exist._

* * *

"We're trapped!" Tom exclaimed startling several nearby guests who eyed him angrily.

"Not so loud." Megan chastised in a hushed tone before turning back to me. "Who tampered with the program?"

"I don't know; they covered their tracks too perfectly." I replied with a grimace. "And no one will notice a thing because we're scheduled for all night; and it was a bear to get Ensign Vorik to give up his meditation time." I added before realizing my mistake. "Oh, but of course I intended to leave well before Naomi's bedtime." I hastily stated turning my head partially to glance apologetically at Sam.

"Are the safeties still on?" She asked clutching Naomi in fear; I couldn't believe she'd think about that, no one on this crew would deliberately try to harm anyone… And yet I didn't relish revealing this last bit of info.

"For everyone except me." I replied softly; trying to be as gentle as I could. "I think whoever did this is trying to test me; I have a sneaking suspicion it has to do with Q's little game." I added with a low growl.

"So all we have to do to end this program and leave is to find this Keyblade thing." Jenny remarked; I nodded. "Shouldn't be too hard." She decided climbing to her feet prepared to lend a hand in getting us out of this predicament.

"At last; I have undeniable proof of FAIRY GODPARENTS!" A voice exclaimed distracting me briefly; without warning a commotion erupted near the entrance and I glanced up in time to witness the formation of several Shadow heartless and a Darkside now towering above most everyone present. "Gah!" Crocker cried eyeing the creature in fear.

"I think you spoke to soon." Harry commented as the rest of the group now scrambled to their feet.

"This could take longer then I initially thought." I muttered as numerous guests moved to confront the interlopers; typically the Decepticons opened fire first without thinking, they nearly caused the roof to cave in with the poorly aimed shots. The Shadows scrambled everywhere evading the attacking guests and quite apparently searching for something, once again I became lost in the program.

"What are they doing?" Sam asked as we began to scramble away from the erupting war zone.

"Looking for the keyhole to this world I'd imagine." I offered lashing out with a burst of lighting, which shattered several Shadows.

"What I wouldn't give for a phaser." Tom quipped watching the battle escalate as more powerful magic wielders entered the fray.

"Gawrsh; we're late." Goofy remarked joining our group as we slowly maneuvered towards the prop basement.

"Firaga!" Donald cried blasting apart three attacking Shadows with three perfect fireballs.

"Can we do that?" Naomi wondered rather inappropriately interjecting her query.

"Doubtful." I replied unleashing a quick burst of energy at Darkside.

"Protect the girl Goofy; I'll get some weapons for Al's friends." Donald proclaimed freezing time with Stopga; at least for the Heartless.

"Sure thing." Goofy acknowledged moving to block the Heartless' access to Naomi.

"I'll go with you." I called out leaping out of the protective circle we'd created and hastily following after Donald. "The Keyblade must be down there too."

"I'll help too." Timmy Turner offered bravely charging the Heartless with Wanda and Cosmo in the guise of green armor and a pink sword.

* * *

Scrambling past a few boxes of Toy Story props I glanced back to find the Soldiers still on our tails; they'd jumped us at the top of the stairs, fortunately Graviga pinned them for a few moments. Dodging a Shadow I happened to glance up and spotted the Keyblade resting in a hallowed pool of light close to Excalibur stuck in the stone.

"The Keyblade; I'm almost there." I remarked with a glimmer of hope in my tone, alas I had spoken too soon; I should have known the program wouldn't make it that easy. The ground began to shake and the sword in the stone toppled over breaking open the tiny crack further; Guard Armor and Stealth Sneak clawed their way out of the growing pool of blackness.  
Donald let out a cry of utter surprise; Stealth Sneak uncurled its' tail and slammed me out of reach of the miraculous key shaped weapon, Guard Armor reached out its' hand and dark energies began to crackle all around revealing a fairly large sized key hole in the center of Steamboat Willie.  
"Oh snap." I cursed trying to get back up and snatch the Keyblade before it was too late; the keyhole shattered and a whirling mass of black energies exploded outwards, and then just as suddenly was drawn back inwards taking nearly everything in sight into its' depths. The Heartless were pulled through as well vanishing into what would be the heart of the world; at least according to the parameters of this program, everything began to tremble and the Keyblade slipped away through the keyhole itself and to some unknown destination.

"I found some weapons!" Donald exclaimed having momentarily been distracted by one of the trunks that had started slipping towards the swirling vortex; unlike the genuine articles I'd come in contact with during my journey, this one was confined to the holodeck and would most likely lead on to some other place.

"Let me guess; the House of Mouse is history unless we can get that Keyblade and seal the hole." I grumbled climbing back up to my feet; having been knocked to the floor during the earthquake.

"We've gotta go through." Donald stated confidently.

"Where does it lead?" I asked uncertainly; he shrugged.

"How should I know; anywhere, it's a different kind of keyhole then the ones in the game." Donald explained; then he quickly started waddling back to the staircase. "We've got to get our friends to help search." He exclaimed; I held up a hand as something glinted out of the corner of my eye and a small smile played across my lips.

"I've got a better idea." I stated indicating the prop I'd stumbled upon.

* * *

Al suddenly materialized upstairs with a strange popping sound accompanied by Donald Duck; much to the surprise of his friends, Goofy was in the process of bashing several of the strange gangly looking creatures helping to fend them off.

"How?" Harry asked clearly baffled.

"You'd be surprised what you'll find in a prop basement." Al replied with a chuckle; Donald pushed past the taller man and began to pass out a couple of swords he'd picked up.

"The Keyblade went through the keyhole, the Heartless ripped a gateway to another world; we have to go after them." The diminutive duck revealed; Tom and Harry had taken the swords and were practicing with them.

"So we'll go and they can stay behind until we get back." Tom stated indicating the women.

"Can't; with the Keyhole open it won't be long before the club is destroyed, we might not get back in time if I don't have everybody helping me find the blasted thing." Al explained with an annoyed sigh; Sam eyed her daughter nervously.

"But, Naomi…" She began; Al cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"Will be better off with us then without, look we aren't in control here and we won't be until we get through the program." He reminded obviously not caring that Donald was listening in on every word; of course certain key characters of the cast happened to know just exactly what they were thanks to the unknown persons' meddling, but they weren't about to let on that they knew.

"Or we crack the code keeping us from the environmental controls and the arch." Harry added; Al had to concede that point with a brief nod.

"Which won't help any of us if we constantly have to fight the Heartless." He countered hefting a short rapier from the Three Musketeers; he needed something as a standby until he could claim the one item that was necessary to help end the program.

"Agreed." Jenny concurred claiming a similar sword to her friends; it was perfectly balanced.

"So how do we get back to the Keyhole?" Megan asked grasping a sharp looking cutlass left over from Pirates of the Caribbean.

"Automatic recall." Al replied moments before the entire group vanished from the club proper leaving a gaggle of guests to fend off the invaders.

"Maybe we should go with them." Wanda suggested to her ten year old master; Timmy looked between the now multiplying attackers, who seemed to be ever more powerful and the group of would be heroes that had just left.

"Uh, maybe your right." He remarked. "I wish I was in the prop basement." He stated and with a tiny wave of their magic wands Timmy vanished in a poof of pink smoke.

* * *

"Just what kind of transporter is this?" Tom asked as we re-materialized inside a giant glass looking dome.

"A prop from the Lilo and Stitch movie; circa two thousand and two." I replied with a tiny grin; despite the fact that we were stuck inside the holodeck I still couldn't help, but think that I'd rather be in this program then anything else.

"Come on; the longer we waste time here the worse it'll get upstairs." Donald grumbled marching straight for the glimmering vortex that had once been a keyhole; now that they could get a good look at it the others were clearly impressed.

"You know; despite everything going on here I must admit this program is a lot less kid oriented then I would have thought." Megan whispered aside to her sister; Jenny nodded, as we drew closer to the shimmering entrance to the great beyond, or wherever it actually led. A shadow seemed to appear around us; and with a quick mental thought I shoved everyone back using my latent abilities just as Trickmaster came crashing down blocking our access.

"Gawrsh." Goofy exclaimed looking up at the massive Heartless.

"Just my luck there's never any Alice in Wonderland props around when you need them." I grumbled readying my sword for battle. "Ah, Donald; now would be a good time for…" I began eyeing the whirling flame-ridden batons nervously.

"Blizzaga!" Donald cried blasting the monstrosity with the most powerful spell in the ice range; Goofy charged forward heedless of the possible dangers to himself and bashed his Save the King shield into the creatures' leg, while I unleashed a wave of electricity into the beasts' vulnerable spot.

"What Disney film are these things from anyway?" Tom asked dodge rolling a swing from Trickmasters' baton.

"Kingdom Hearts wasn't a movie; it was a videogame created by Disney interactive and Square Enix, a popular role-playing game creator." I replied leaping over another swing with considerable ease thanks to my gravity controlling powers.

"Figures." Sam remarked. "Boys and their toys." She added with a knowing smile before she charged Trickmaster herself, more to help protect Naomi then anything else.

"Hey!" I exclaimed defensively. "It builds hand-eye coordination." I added just as a poof of pink smoke appeared close by; I blinked slightly wondering why this particular character had showed up, but had to dodge the re-ignited baton as it was hurled in my general direction.

"This is taking too long." Harry complained. "I wish this guy would just take the hint already." He added; the little bucktoothed kid with the pink hat eyed the rapidly out of control battle and his expression seemed to be one of agreement.

"Good idea." He whispered speaking to his two fairies; one of whom was now a pink squirrel with a crown while the other was an almost identical looking green squirrel. They held their wands up; and with another flash of pink smoke the tide of battle drastically turned as a giant water tower, on loan from Warner Brothers suddenly burst open drenching Trickmaster entirely and dousing his batons.

"Thanks." I called out taking care not to make it appear as if I was actually thanking the computer generated characters nearby; with a quick burst of lightning Trickmaster let out an inhuman scream and crumbled up into nothing turning into a giant crystal heart that rapidly flew away.

"It's about time." Donald complained before he and Goofy took the lead leaping into the giant gateway to countless other worlds; I had a sinking feeling that this was the part of the program where we'd wind up getting separated. Though I didn't want to tell them that; being connected to the computer I'd happened to run a complete scan of the program's algorithms and happened to know what to expect, or at least mostly what to expect.

"Are you sure this is the only way?" Sam asked clutching Naomi's hand tightly; Jenny and Megan had already gone through followed closely by Tom and Harry, which only left us, and Timmy Turner. Who I was beginning to think might be tagging along too for some reason I couldn't figure out from the program.

"Nothing can harm you guys; I guarantee it." I reiterated. "And when I find out who messed up our carefully planned evening I'm gonna teach them a lesson they won't soon forget, or maybe I'll just let B'Elanna have them for injector manifold cleaning." I added with a gleefully wicked smile; Sam smiled back at that and marched purposefully towards the keyhole.

"I'll hold you to that." She called over her shoulder before vanishing; I sighed, looks like it was my turn to be scattered to the four winds.

"Wait!" A voice cried out; I turned to find Mickey dashing up to me a little short of breath. "Compliments of the Fairy Godmother." He added passing me four marvelous looking jewels; I eyed them with a fond smile, something about this program was actually putting my mind at ease and getting rid of all the stress I'd been feeling of late trying to perfect my personal off-duty projects.

"Thank her for me; and do something about Crocker will ya." I requested partially in jest before taking one calming breath and leaping into the shimmering vortex; I had to keep reminding myself this was all just a holographic environment.

"Yay! Road trip." Cosmo exclaimed rushing after the strange man; Wanda rolled her eyes while she and Timmy followed.

"I sure hope this is a good idea." She remarked before vanishing from the club with her charge.

* * *

Serpen was watching everything transpiring on the holodeck using his natural gifts; his mouth was twisted upwards in a frightful smile, his plan was performing much as he desired. He'd been slightly taken aback at the display of this fools own powers, but he had seen nothing to be too concerned about just yet; once again he found himself praising the humans' ingenuity. This technology was the perfect tool for learning what must be discovered to adequately defend himself and eventually slay the pitiful excuse for a hero.

"So thoughtful of him to use such a program tonight; it shall be simplicity itself to discover his weaknesses." He whispered to himself before flicking his tongue out and snatching a strange vermin like creature he'd collected in secret on one of his so-called duty shifts off planet.

To Be Continued; **It starts, though it may seem silly for Serpen to use the elements of Kingdom Hearts to study our hero's fighting techniques, he does still have to work within the parameters of Al's program after all. In the second half be prepared for a lot more jumping around and a visit from many more characters Disney and beyond especially one of my personal favorites, Captain... Oh wait that'd spoil the reveal, savvy? LOL!**


	5. Chapter 5 Problems on the Holodeck P2

**Author's Notes:** Hmmm; one of my regular reviewers seems to have missed the last couple of updates... No matter it just means they'll have so many chapters to catch up on. Anyway; as promised here is the rest of the Holodeck program, and alas Firebirdgirl you were mistaken, no Janeway and no Hook instead you get...

* * *

"I must be dreaming." A strange voice stated. "Either that or we've picked up a stowaway." She added her voice was slightly accented with British undertones.

"No Elizabeth; that's no stowaway, that fine specimen of a man is a rather annoying individual I had the grave misfortune of meeting at the House of Mouse." A very familiar voice stated prodding me with what must have been the toe of his boot.

"So how'd he get on the Intrepid?" Will Turner asked as I groggily climbed to my feet a sly smirk crossing my features as I eyed my surroundings.

"Intrepid?" I repeated. "I suppose this means you've lost the Pearl again Jack." I added with a smug expression of amusement.

"Alas lad I have; to a group of scoundrels who not unlike yourself appeared without warning." Captain Jack Sparrow began removing his hat in a show of remorse. "Though I fought valiantly as did my crew; I had no choice but to abandon my beloved Black Pearl when they summoned ships of unusual design." He continued with his sob story; ever the performance artist that one was, I rolled my eyes.

"I suppose next you're going to tell me these ships could fly." I stated with flippancy; Jack eyed me dangerously.

"And how might you know that? You wouldn't happen to be working with them now, would you?" He demanded suspicious now.

"I am certainly not, savvy." I shot back; Jack took a few moments to continue to eye me before he plopped his hat back on his head and swayed back to the helm.

"I was just asking." He returned softly; I began to glance around in hopes of finding someone else from my group, unfortunately it was becoming apparent that I was the only one to wind up on the open sea with one of the worlds nuttiest pirates.

"Anybody else show up with me?" I hazarded figuring it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"No, just you I'm afraid." Will replied; I was a little disappointed at that even though I suspected as much.

"Just Prime." I grumbled. "Where are we going?" I asked louder now.

"Port Royal of course; that's where those mutinous dogs took my ship." Jack calmly offered; I groaned at that, and fervently held to the hope that the Keyblade didn't wind up in the ocean, I couldn't stand swimming let alone the thought of having to perform deep sea diving right about now. Without warning I found myself drawn to Elizabeth; who really shouldn't be with us judging by the looks Will and Jack were giving her, more importantly I was drawn to a particular charm hanging from her neck.

Snatching it off the chain with a simple tug I deftly pocketed it; Elizabeth shot me a deep rooted glare.

"You will return that to her at once." Will ordered grabbing my wrist; I shook my head and shrugged off his grip effortlessly.

"Sorry; that little trinket happens to belong to the one who wields the Keyblade, namely me." I returned; Elizabeth got a far away look in her eyes and Jack shot me a steely gaze, at least I thought it was one, hard to tell with him.

"Then those that stole my ship were Heartless." He stated knowingly; Will eyed him nervously, well at least I didn't have to get into stupid exposition with all these characters, everyone who's anyone among Disney's cast knew about the Heartless thanks to my program.

"The Keyblade." Elizabeth suddenly broke in; I turned to her hope suddenly springing up within. "That wouldn't happen to be a strange looking key about this big?" She asked spreading her arms wide in rough approximation of the size.

"You've seen it then?" I stated; it was not a question.

"My father found it a fortnight ago and it is now resting above his mantle." She replied; once again I let out a groan, now because I knew that laying claim to the weapon would not be so easy.

"Well at least I'm in the appropriate company for the task at hand." I stated optimistically; Will and Elizabeth shared a confused look.

"And that would be?" He asked; Jack chuckled knowing full well what I meant.

"Pirates lad; he's referring to our questionable business." The seemingly always drunk captain stated; Will nodded a gleam of understanding in his eyes. _Ok; so I lucked out and got the hard part over, now if only I can find my friends fast and get back to the HOM so we can end this ruddy program and get out of here in time for Naomi to go to bed._

* * *

Megan and Jenny Delaney raced down the street of an odd town fleeing from a group of Heartless, they didn't look like the ones from the club; these creatures were little blue bell shaped versions with black heads under little yellow caps. The twins had appeared in this odd looking town quite by themselves and after looking around the strange though interesting First District, they'd traveled through giant double doors into the Second District.

"Where is everybody else?" Jenny wondered leaping over the edge of a walkway having discovered that their jumping skills seemed to have improved since passing through the keyhole portal.

"That Keyhole must have separated us somehow." Megan surmised pausing to swing at the annoying little Heartless, though it appeared to be futile; the creature dodged seemingly laughing at their inability to hit it. And then it launched another blast of arctic magic; like so many times before the attack had no effect on the non-holographic women, of course to better blend in with the program they happened to be wearing a strange looking chain around both their necks, which happened to glow each time they were supposedly hit dissipating the magic cast.  
Jenny finally grew fed up with the beasts' effortless capacity to avoid their attacks; leaping up she madly began to swing, her sword flashed about in a flurry of cuts and slashes. The Heartless gave out a tiny shriek and vanished into nothingness leaving behind another of those strange crystal like hearts that seemed to float up into the air and vanish.  
The twins dashed around the corner and spotted another doorway leading into what appeared to be some kind of mansion; however as they moved towards it the ground began to shake, a tiny red box tumbled off a ledge and clonked Megan in the head, she grumbled as she rubbed at the injury. Safety protocols only ensured nothing fatal happened after all; something as mundane as a bump on the noggin was still possible, glaring at the offending item she kicked it knocking a tiny keychain loose. Bending down she retrieved it; drawn by a strange force she could not explain, the entrance to the house proved locked and so they had to rush back around to the main area. A strange jumble of parts fell from the sky slamming hard into the paved ground; Jenny gulped as the parts re-arranged themselves into a giant suit of armor, purple and black in color with a silver faceplate and a strange black and red heart shaped symbol on its' chest.

"I think we're in trouble." She stated looking up in growing terror despite the fact she knew this to be a hologram; a blast of energy slammed into the giant from behind the two women, followed almost immediately by a very odd overgrown shuriken. Both Starfleet officers spun around to find a dark brown haired handsome young man with haunting blue eyes and a lot of dark colored clothing standing there; he was wielding a rather impressive looking gun shaped sword. A shorter dark haired, hazel eyed woman in a green top that showed off her midriff, a yellow scarf and really short yellow pants stood beside him.

"Get over here quick." The tall man ordered in a cool tone; his voice never raised, it was as if he had mastered the art of speaking softly even when shouting.

"Yeah; we're not much of a match for the Guard Armor on our own." The woman admitted in a fairly child-like tone of voice; Megan actually had the feeling her voice would probably be considered attractive to a lot of the men she'd dated in the past; the sisters eyed one another uncertainly. Jenny shrugged as if to say 'haven't got much choice', and the two of them raced over to the defenders who were in the process of assaulting this Guard Armor creep a second time.

"Who are you?" Jenny asked ducking around the corner with the woman who was now leading them down a path they hadn't noticed earlier.

"I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie; and that's Leon, you must be friends of Sora, otherwise the Heartless wouldn't attack you so aggressively." The woman observed even as she deftly caught the large glowing throwing star and hurled it once again towards the monster behind them.

"Who's Sora?" Megan blurted; Jenny shook her head, obviously Sora was a character of the program.

"We're friends of Al actually; we were at the House of Mouse when…" Jenny began to explain only to trail off as she realized how absurd she sounded explaining things to a hologram.

"Al's here." Leon exclaimed his eyes narrowing in immediate distaste as the quartet passed through another oversized doorway marked Third District.

"Not exactly." Megan began as Yuffie ducked inside the closest house near the entrance, which sat opposite a flight of stairs. "We were all at the club when this all started, but now; well after we used the keyhole to teleport ourselves off in search of the Keyblade we kind of got separated." She elaborated; it wasn't all that bad really, and this did throw a new twist into the whole holodeck design. After all; no one of the twenty-fourth century even came close to showing this much thought and imagination when blending the serious with the kid-friendly characters of the twentieth century.

"You're back." A light brown haired, green eyed pink clad woman exclaimed as she looked up from the table she'd been sitting by.

"Of course Aerith, problem is we didn't find Sora." Leon muttered leaning up against the wall and resting his gun blade beside him. "I'm beginning to think he might have wound up somewhere else."

"We did find a couple of Al's friends though." Yuffie added with a big smile as she hopped over a couple of discarded boxes and straddled the chair opposite her friend.

"Oh; it's been so long since we've seen the great Defender of the Disney Magic, how is Al?" Aerith asked turning to the Delaney's who had puzzled looks on their faces.

"Uh; he's fine." Jenny hastily replied slightly confused at the title Al had given himself; Megan was trying hard not to laugh.

"That's good to hear." Aerith returned with a gentle smile. "Now all we have to do is wait." She stated confidently.

"Why don't we go ask the old man for some info?" Yuffie suggested bouncing back and forth in her chair with a great amount of energy.

"Not until Guard Armor settles down." Leon returned in a tone that would brook no argument; Jenny sighed and flopped onto the bed, causing a large amount of dust to rise and a few precariously perched boxes to tumble from the shelf. She coughed brushing the dust aside and absentmindedly picked up a small key chain from the nightstand fingering it in her nervousness.

"I sure hope the others are ok." She whispered with a sigh.

"The way the holodeck works we're probably all closer then we perceive." Megan muttered back out of the corner of her mouth.

* * *

Tom Paris was not used to finding himself in a program that defied the natural order of things; he was certainly not used to being submerged in water and completely being able to breath, then again he hadn't expected the program to alter his appearance to the perceptions of others. The fact that he was apparently swimming under the power of a fish-like tail notwithstanding, this part of the program was rather impressive.  
He'd been looking around for anybody else earlier to little avail, now he was busily scrambling around the secondary access panel trying to make sense of the readings. He wasn't making much headway; and the constant swarm of mostly green Heartless things appearing as if from nowhere kept distracting him from trying to figure it out.

* * *

Harry Kim was awed by the sight that greeted him; he was surrounded by a world unlike anything he'd ever dreamed of before, but that was because most aquatic based societies rarely resembled the old preconceived notions of mermaids. A dazzling array of life forms danced about the currents performing regular duties; and sitting right in the middle of this world was a great golden hued palace with numerous spires jutting out.  
The annoying part was the subtle music that kept playing in the background; a byproduct of the holodecks' program most likely, he actually found himself humming along with it once or twice before recovering his wits. Much like Tom he was now swimming with a fish-like tail; of course in reality he was probably just kicking his legs constantly and the holographic change to his person moved in mimicry of what a tail would do. He'd lost his sword unfortunately when he arrived here, but he was more concerned with finding out where Tom and the others were; that's when he noticed the swarming Heartless.  
Kicking off with his tail he tried to rush forward and instead found himself colliding with someone coming the other way; she was smaller then him, and wore a seashell bras, in fact it was the only thing she was wearing considering her lower body was a beautiful looking tail scaled in emerald green.

"Oh I'm sorry." She quickly apologized; her red hair bobbing about her and yet somehow still conforming to her face. "I was trying to reach daddy to warn him about the Heartless." She added by way of explanation.

"Yeah; well, I have to get there, I think one of my friends might be in trouble." Harry returned snapping out of his slight infatuation; now was not the time to start developing another crush on a hologram.

"But you don't have any weapons." The young mermaid pointed out worried for his safety of all things; Harry sighed.

"I know; I kinda dropped it earlier, I guess I wasn't prepared for the amount of suction that Keyhole thing had." He returned somberly; the mermaid eyed him now with wonder, and she giggled clapping her hands in glee.

"You're from outside." She exclaimed happily. "I've always wanted to meet others from other worlds." She added swimming about him and studying him. "Funny; you don't look how I would have pictured you, but I've only had Al and Sora to judge by." She revealed; Harry eyed her now with sudden intensity.

"You've met Al?" He wondered incredulously, but of course this was his program; it made sense that the man had patterned certain things from some vision he'd had back home.

"Oh yes." The mermaid returned with another giggle. "He and Sora came here once to seal the keyhole." She explained swimming about with sudden laughter. "It was a great adventure." She added with a happy little sigh; Harry felt like sighing too, but mostly because he should have realized he was dealing with a teenager and apparently even here they were fickle people with swift changes of emotions.

"Well this has been all very fascinating, but I really think I should help my friend." He interjected starting to swim around her; much to his surprise she darted back in front of him and eyed him quite seriously now.

"Then I'm coming too." She stated. "I've had more experience fighting the Heartless." She added; and before he could even try to argue she darted off heading rapidly toward the odd Heartless, Harry did sigh this time, but was quick to follow.

* * *

The calming sound of the ocean surf rushing over the sand brought a distinct sense of peace and calm to her mind; and she didn't really want to wake up, but that voice carrying on was driving her batty.

"WEEEEEEEEE!" It cried from somewhere close by. "This is fun Timmy; you should try it."

"Cosmo you're gonna wake her up." A second voice remarked attempting to shush the first one. "Any sign of the adults yet?" She asked.

"I can't see anybody Wanda, maybe I should…" He trailed off as the girl groaned slightly and sat up holding her head.

"That was fun." She finally decided. "But I don't think I liked the landing very much." She added; looking around she spotted a short ten year old boy in a red shirt, a pink hat and with buck teeth. A pink dog with a little crown floating above it's head stood beside him protectively; glancing around for the source of the third voice she spotted a green dog riding a piece of driftwood as a surfboard.

"You're animals can talk." She wondered though it wasn't really a question because she'd heard them speaking; the closest dog looked around nervously and made a fake barking sound.

"Uh; no, you must have been hearing things." The little boy returned nervously; Naomi shook her head and decided not to press him to tell her the truth, it really wasn't important.

"My mom isn't here." She stated; the little boy nodded briefly and the dog seemed to smile encouragingly at her.

"Whatever we went through must have… Uh; got everybody lost or something." He said with a little shrug. "I'm Timmy." He added holding out a hand; Naomi smiled and shook it.

"Better start lookin' for them." She sighed. "I'll take Wanda and search over here and you can search through there with Cosmo." She added indicating the large wooden wall with the massive door.

"Uh…Ok, but don't get lost." Timmy requested; Naomi shook her head with a smile and began to make her way towards the large structures, they were made of wood and seemed to be built around the trees, it was kind of neat actually. "Cosmo!" Timmy shouted from the big door; the green dog flashed away and Naomi caught Wanda shooting a glare at him, she smiled, there was definitely something different about these two animals.

"Mom!" She cried as she began to approach the central area of this island, for that's what it had to be if anything. "Ensign Kim! Lieutenant Paris!" She added hoping to just find any of the adults. "Al!" She added, he was the only one who insisted on everybody using his first name; and since he was also a Borg she was comfortable using it much like Seven.

"Who do you suppose that is Tidus?" An unknown girls' voice asked from somewhere close by, Naomi stopped and started looking around for the source.

"Must be somebody new, then again she appears to know Al." A boy replied, most likely this Tidus person.

"Didn't Al go off with Sora and Riku?" The girl asked; Naomi still couldn't find them, that is until she looked up and saw two people looking down from the large walkway connecting two of the houses.

"Yeah; and Kairi before she came back." Tidus replied, then there was a brief bit of silence as the two children; for that was surely what they were studied her and her pink canine friend in silence. She also studied them; curious as to who they were in this brilliant program of Als', part of her wished she could create programs like this actually.  
The boy, named Tidus; appeared to be around ten or possibly twelve years of age, he hand blond hair, greenish eyes and was holding a sword shaped stick. He was wearing short blue shorts and an open yellow with white short-sleeved vest revealing his muscular chest and abdomen. Naomi felt a hot sensation on her cheeks as her eyes lingered on the boy; so she quickly averted them examining the girl who hadn't been addressed by name yet. She wore a slightly dark yellow dress with straps and no sleeves that billowed a little at the bottom as she began to descend the nearest ladder; she had light brown hair and even greener eyes then Tidus, if that was possible, _Tidus; that's a dreamy kind of name_.

"Hello, I'm Selphie." She introduced hopping down from the ladder and offering a warm smile in greeting.

"Naomi." She replied reaching out to politely shake hands, she felt a little strange standing next to children older then her; she was about six or seven herself. But that was only because of her Ktarian blood. "Where am I?" She asked.

"This is the Destiny Islands." Tidus replied as he joined them, Naomi felt her cheeks growing hot again as she shook the boys hand. "How'd you get here?" He asked suspiciously, obviously oblivious to the effect he was having on the younger girl.

"I came through a big Keyhole with my mommy; er I mean mom, have you seen her?" She wondered doing her best not to act like a kid in front of the boy for some weird reason; Wanda the dog seemed to be smiling at her with a hint of something, perhaps she knew more about why this boy was affecting her so badly.

"No, but we should take you to Kairi, she might have seen someone." Selphie replied beckoning for Naomi to come with her.

"But what about Timmy and Cosmo?" Naomi wondered hesitating as she remembered the boy and his other strange dog who must have followed them through the keyhole for some reason.

"They'll probably run into Wakka, he was over on that side of the island practicing with his Blitzball." Tidus informed before he began to climb back up into the tree house, Naomi was a little uncertain about following; especially since Wanda couldn't climb trees. The dog however surprised her by faking another bark and starting to hop up the ladder as if she'd done it before; Naomi shrugged and began to climb; grateful that Wanda was directly behind Tidus and not her.

* * *

Samantha Wildman sighed as she re-entered the immaculate library and plopped herself down on one of the chairs before the square table on the upper floor, she'd searched this entire strange castle; or at least the rooms she could get to. She couldn't figure out how the strange crystals and the elevators worked; they hadn't reacted when she'd touched them, so she believed she probably needed that Keyblade thing to work them properly. No one else was here, none of her crewmates, none of the Heartless creatures, not even any of the characters from the club. She wasn't too worried about the others because she knew they could handle themselves, but she was almost frantic about Naomi; as she glanced across the table her eyes happened to fall upon a small metal object and she reached over to pick it up.

"A key chain." She exclaimed in surprise; suddenly a loud noise startled her and she spun around in fear cursing her ill-luck in losing her sword when she hoped into the keyhole, her eyes widened in sudden fear. Standing before her was a somber looking young man; he was dressed in a dark blue one piece outfit that conformed to his muscular frame with odd metal accoutrements and a billowing dark red possibly maroon cloak. This alone did not instill fear in her because he was handsome, with blond hair and a hint of kindness in his blue eyes. But he was still very imposing; especially with the long cloth wrapped sword, she didn't understand why the blade was wrapped with a cloth that resembled a mummy's shroud, but she didn't linger there. Or the claw tipped glove on his right hand; no, her eyes were inexorably drawn to the strange bat like wing sticking out of his right shoulder blade.  
"Uh, hello." She stammered. "I didn't see anyone earlier, uh; how long have you been here?" She asked, not very surprising he chose not to speak; this guy was quite the brooding type apparently. "Well; I'm Samantha… This is a lovely home you have; not very friendly looking mind you, but then again I guess if you're the only one here it gets rather lonely." She began to yammer on at least having someone to talk too helped; and she couldn't stand the depressing silence of the place. "So where am I exactly?" She wondered; the man did not speak yet again, he did however lower his sword; Sam guessed he'd chosen not to consider her a threat.  
"Al, if I ever get out of here I'm going to kill you for sending me to mister personality here." She muttered settling back down into her seat with a glare, much to her surprise the man spoke at the mention of the absent young Ensign. His voice was low, with a hint of some past pain in his tone; although it was a pleasant enough voice despite the fact he only said one word.

"Al?" Was what he stated in an inquisitive tone.

"Yes; he's the one who got me here, we were at this place called the House of Mouse when these Heartless showed up and broke open the keyhole." She began finding herself feeling a tad foolish for going on about the fictional happenings on the holodeck, it did seem a little over the top considering the fact that they'd started out by watching cartoons on a big screen. "So Al told us we had to go into the keyhole to find the Keyblade; and now I'm here all by myself in this godforsaken fortress, separated from my daughter who's facing God knows what kind of danger and it's his entire fault." She finished in one long breath her little explanation becoming a rant; the man seemed taken aback at the vehemence in her words and placed his gloved hand awkwardly on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

"Hollow Bastion, this place is called Hollow Bastion." He revealed his voice as gentle as he could muster. "Cloud." He added; Sam arched an eyebrow in confusion wondering what he meant by that; finally it dawned on her that, that must be this characters name.

"Nice to meet you." She returned patting his hand graciously. "So; do you have a way out of here?" She asked hopefully.

"Follow me." Came the simple reply as he began to walk down the semi-spiral staircase, which led to the first floor; Sam climbed to her feet and followed after him surprised at how much taller he now appeared standing next to her.

* * *

"Let us out of here!" Donald cried when he wasn't shouting in angry incoherence, Goofy sighed and sat back on the lone cot in the room.

"Donald you're wastin' yer energy." He reminded; Donald stopped his ranting and whirled to face Goofy.

"Stupid royal guards, they called us pirates." He grumbled waddling over and flopping onto the cot beside Goofy.

"Yeah, but at least we found the Keyblade, we just gotta get it back." Goofy stated confidently; Donald nodded in agreement, luck seemed to be with them.

"At least they didn't confiscate these." Donald admitted revealing the keychain he had been charged with that dangled on a chain around his neck.

"We should have given them to Al before we left." His companion sighed; suddenly they heard cannon fire and the two of them shared a confused look.

"Maybe the Heartless have come." Goofy mused concernedly.

"We have to get out of here and get the Keyblade before they do." Donald grumbled leaping back to his feet and rushing over to the door; without warning the weapon in question swung down and smashed the cell door open. Donald opened his eyes; having closed them out of reflex, to find Al standing before them with Save the Queen and Save the King.

"I believe you misplaced these." He quipped with a wide grin.

"How'd you get here?" Donald demanded snatching Save the Queen from Al.

"I ran into a lovable pirate who seems to have lost his ship to the Heartless." Al replied with a chuckle.

"Come on." Goofy called from the stairway. "We've gotta stop the Heartless."

"Relax, that's just Jack." Al revealed.

"We've gotta get back to the club and seal that Keyhole first." Donald stated brushing past Al.

"How, we don't have a Gummi ship." Al pointedly reminded; that's when the whole fort began to shake and tremble as something big rocketed out of the sky and shook the foundations, Al, Goofy and Donald rushed upstairs and outside to find a very familiar looking space shuttle.

"Now that's." Al began.

"Good timing." Donald finished with a smug expression on his face.

"He is here for us right?" Al wondered with a raised eyebrow.

"Alain Desrochers; I have been called into service due to the fact that I was the only one trusted enough to retrieve you, have you managed to find the Keyblade?" A booming voice asked; Al grinned from ear to ear, he couldn't help himself it wasn't everyday you got to meet fictional characters after all.

"Does that answer your question?" Donald demanded smugly; Al just shrugged and waved the Keyblade to attract the space ships attention.

"Ya know I'm surprised we haven't run into any Heartless yet." Goofy remarked mostly to himself; and as if on cue the Black Pearl suddenly appeared in the harbor brimming to the crows nest with Heartless.

"You just had to say something." Donald exclaimed in exasperation; Sky Linx swung around and began to fire on the Heartless his lasers tearing large holes through the sails and the decking.

"Stop blowing holes in my ship!" Jack shouted from his position on the Intrepids' stern deck; he waved his cutlass at the Autobot.

"Come on you two lets' go take care of those Heartless." Al cried flourishing the Keyblade above his head; he was actually a little fed up right then and just wanted to vent some pent up rage.

* * *

"Interesting; he appears to have an impressive skill with bladed weapons, even fictional ones." Serpen mused as he observed the onset of the battle; his tongue flicked out once again as he smiled confidently to himself, his smile widening to impossible lengths. "He should be quite simple to destroy." He added darkly.

* * *

Megan sighed as she looked around at the barren looking house; there was no real furniture to speak of and far too many crates littering the one room building. Jenny and Aerith seemed to have bonded and were sharing stories laughing aloud and having a grand time; Yuffie was quietly observing the two with a smile while Leon kept glancing at the door.  
She kicked one of the crates in frustration and suddenly remembered the tiny key chain she'd picked up outside back during the mad dash to escape the Heartless; removing it from her pocket she studied it, mystified by why she kept it. Someone knocked at the door suddenly and everyone visibly tensed up, Leon glanced outside and; although he didn't smile he didn't glower either. Opening the door he let three people enter one was Samantha who seemed relieved to see the twins; the other two were unknowns and Megan was shocked to see that one of them had a bat-like wing sticking out of his right shoulder.

"Cloud." Aerith exclaimed rising to her feet and rushing over to the stoic young man with the wing; she hugged him openly and he seemed to lighten up briefly.

"Jenny, Megan is… Is Naomi with you?" Sam asked hopefully looking around.

"No, sorry." Megan replied with a sympathetic look.

"Name's Cid." The much older blond haired man greeted, he was wearing a dirty white shirt, blue pants with a pair of goggles resting on his forehead and a very strange light brown belt. "Cloud here found your friend at Hollow Bastion and brought her here." He explained indicating the young man. "Mickey said Al, Donald and Goofy are getting picked up and brought here to get you… All of you." He added looking around pointedly at the four younger characters.

"The Heartless must really be overrunning the House of Mouse then." Leon stated with a slight nod of understanding.

"Sure are, you won't be travelin' on no Gummi ship this time either; Mickey says he sent Sky Linx." Cid stated with a big false grin plastered on his face.

"Oh no, not him." Yuffie exclaimed with a sigh; Aerith merely smiled politely.

"Who's Sky Linx?" Jenny asked confused.

* * *

I glanced up as three Battleships charged our Autobot ride and sighed; this wasn't going as I'd hoped, Donald spotted the ships and sent a Graviga spell their way, which greatly damaged one and destroyed a second. The third turned concentrating all firepower on us; Goofy used his shield to deflect a shot back up at the damaged ship and blew it apart while Sky Linx made short work of the other. Will suddenly leapt down from somewhere unseen and deflected a Pirate sending it reeling backwards; it had been going for my blindside, I nodded in thanks and swung the Keyblade expertly taking three Shadows and an Air Pirate out with one blow.

"We need more help; those soldiers aren't much use." Donald grumbled indicating the Port Royal navy; I rolled my eyes skyward at my own stupidity and quickly pulled out one of the four Summon gems Mickey gave me back in the club.  
This gem looked different from what I remembered; in fact it was very strange looking, all black and white as if a blend of pearl and onyx. Shrugging aside my thoughts I deftly twirled the Keyblade tapping into the hidden powers within that the program duplicated; touching the tip of the blade to the gem I continued to run through the rather showy magical summons. With a wisp of blue energy and a loud explosion of sound a rather plain looking teenager leapt out of the magical sphere; he took a quick glance around and then mentally summoned his own powers.

"Where'd he come from?" Goofy asked as Danny Fenton became Danny Phantom and began to bombard the Heartless with ghost attacks.

"Mickey, Fairy Godmother turned some of the other guests into summon gem form for easy transport and backup." I replied bashing another Air Pirate into oblivion as the tide turned in our favor.

"I believe it is time we vacate this area at once and locate your friends." Sky Linx stated as his lynx form landed among us; I had to concede to him on that point, this program was running on for far too long as it was and I promised to get everybody out in time for Naomi's bedtime.

"So what are you waiting for?" Donald demanded in a huffy voice. "Transform into your cargo container mode and get us up to your shuttle mode." He ordered looking for all the world like he wanted to kick the Autobot; Sky Linx eyed him with an indignant glance.

"Of all the nerve; here I am risking my considerable life for three unassuming people and this is the thanks I get, my fellow Autobots wouldn't know what to do with themselves if my brilliance wasn't around and…" Sky Linx trailed off at the annoyed look I shot him and his lynx mode quickly converted into the large blue cargo pod form, Goofy and Donald hopped in first while I glanced over to Danny.

"Last call for all guests wishing to return to the House of Mouse." I called out; he shook his head.

"Somebody's gotta hold these goons off; tell Sam and Tucker I'll meet them back home." He called back; I nodded at that and hopped aboard the Autobot, Sky Linx's shuttle form landed quickly and picked up the cargo pod. And then we were rocketing off into the stars; though we couldn't see them from inside the pod, with a tiny sigh of relief I began to search out for my friends using my optics to see through the holographic disguise. I might not be able to know what area of the program they were in, but I'd definitely be able to know which direction we had to go.

"Next stop Traverse Town." Sky Linx informed before kicking it into overdrive; I tumbled backwards at that, since there weren't any seats in here.

* * *

Harry was amazed at the determination in the teenage mermaids face as she whirled about and battered the Heartless aside in a mini whirlpool of awesome strength; Tom had given him his sword when they first arrived and was busy with the secondary access panel, the Heartless kept swarming obviously defending the piece of equipment. Which could only mean that whoever altered Al's initial program upgraded the characters of the Heartless so they'd be aware of certain things beyond the parameters of ordinary holograms.

"I don't believe this!" Tom cried slapping the console in aggravation.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked dodging one of the odd jellyfish-looking creatures that had started to show up once he and the unknown character arrived.

"Al's got that neural link of his activated again; that's how the creep who locked us in here managed to reconfigure the parameters of the program so subtly. He was using Al's own memories to help." Tom revealed in a thinly veiled tone of annoyed frustration.

"Which means what exactly?" Harry wondered; Tom sighed and floated up to his friend still getting used to the whole feeling of weightlessness.

"We can't do anything from here; and we can't trace the person who corrupted Al's program, since he was using Al's own link with the computers while Al was completely unaware of it I'm going to assume it was someone very skilled in engineering." He explained; Harry groaned.

"Which is like two thirds of everybody on this ship." He returned; now that Tom was no longer playing around with the panel the Heartless soon began to disappear until none of them were left.

"We did it." The girl exclaimed in joy. "But we'd better get back to the palace; it's safer there with daddy." She added; Tom eyed her confusedly and was about to say something when the water began to churn and a large white space shuttle dipped down.

"What's an old Nasa shuttle doing in this program?" He wondered; Harry shrugged, the door popped open and Al stuck his head out.

"Did someone call for a taxi service?" He asked with a smile; Tom shook his head in disbelief.

"Al!" The girl exclaimed swimming up to the entrance; she quickly embraced him. "Can I come this time?" She asked hopefully.

"Sorry Ariel; we're kinda full up." He returned with a nervous gesture for the other two to hurry up, Harry didn't argue; while Tom studied the ship curiously.

"Where'd you dig this old fossil up?" He asked joining his friend by the entrance and wondering just how they were supposed to board the vessel without any legs.

"Of all the nerve." A voice exclaimed. "I'll have you know that I am nothing like the Dinobots, or old fossils as you put it; my talents are hailed by my fellow Autobots as…"

"Sky Linx." Al stated rather forcefully.

"My apologies, but that was just rude." Sky Linx returned before shutting up; Al turned to someone inside and Donald waddled up to the entrance, he waved his staff and suddenly Tom and Harry actually looked human again to the rest of the characters.

"Thanks for all your help Ariel." Harry called out as Goofy helped Tom inside; the little mermaid swam up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks for giving me an adventure." She returned with a big smile, she giggled and swam off happily racing towards the palace; and then paused and rushed back just as Goofy reached out for Harry's hand. "Here take this." She said pressing something into his hand. "For luck." She added before swimming off rapidly.

"Gawrsh I think she likes you." Goofy remarked; Harry did his best to hide the blush and quickly boarded the shuttle, or should he consider it as an Autobot… Al's programs were always so complex.

"Can we go now?" He asked rather hurriedly; Al chuckled and patted Sky Linx's side, the Autobot's engines flared and the group rocketed away heading towards the surface world.

"Last stop Destiny Islands." He proclaimed; Sam sighed with relief, according to this strange creature that was where Naomi was waiting.

* * *

Selphie led Naomi along a rickety wooden bridge, which led up to one of the larger tree houses; she didn't know why they were going there, but according to her new friends a friend of theirs tended to stay there a lot nowadays waiting for a boy called Sora. Tidus cried out a greeting then as Cosmo, Timmy and an older orange haired boy with a light yellow vest and bright orange pants showed up; he was carrying a big blue and white ball. His eyes were brown and a robust tan covered his skin; he smiled in greeting to Naomi and shook her hand politely.

"They call me Wakka." He informed. "And you must be Naomi; Timmy's been telling me about you, pleased to meet you." He stated his smile widening as he balanced his ball in one hand; Naomi grinned and Wanda barked happily as she saw Timmy was safe, Selphie knocked at the door to the house. There was movement inside and then the door flew open; a young brunette with deep blue eyes looked past the group before her as if expecting someone else. After a minute her eyes regained their focus and her face fell slightly before putting up a well practiced fake smile.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" She asked.

"Well Kairi, you see we found this young girl on the beach." Tidus began to explain before the entire island began to shake; all eyes looked around in worry, it was Kairi and Naomi who thought to look upwards in time to see a massive vehicle of some kind dropping from the sky.  
A shadow fell over the ships hatch as three people appeared inside the doorway; one of them was Naomi's mom and she leapt for joy upon seeing her again, the other two were Al and Donald respectively. Al leapt out of the ship and floated down to the group; he pulled out an odd looking jewel as he did so and performed some kind of strange dance with the large key shaped blade in his hands. A tiny pixie flitted out as the smoke caused by the gem vanished; she darted around Al's head and kissed him on the cheek.

"Hi." Naomi said happily leaping into my arms, which took me a little by surprise. "It's good to see you again." She added. "Can we end this game now I'm getting a little tired?" She admitted.

"Almost little bit." I returned with a tiny smile. "Tink, if you'd be so kind." He requested; the pixie flitted about rapidly causing a ton of glowing gold dust to blanket Naomi, Wanda, Cosmo and Timmy. "You can fly now; thanks to the parameters of the program." I whispered. "Just think of a wonderful thought, any happy little thought." I added reciting the lyrics to the song slightly. Naomi closed her eyes and thought about seeing her mommy again; almost at once she floated up into the air and a big smile lit her face.

"This is so neat." She exclaimed with a giggle; Timmy floated up beside her.

"I'm coming too; I left Mom and Dad at the club." He said; I shook my head slightly a big smile plastered on my own face.

"No problem; Sky Linx has enough room for everybody." I stated; Timmy proceeded to lead Naomi, Cosmo and Wanda up to the ship, I was about to follow when I felt a hand clutching my wrist.

"Is Sora with you?" Kairi asked; I sighed, now was not the time to play out this part of the program I was eager to get back and finish this myself, but her grip was like iron.

"I'm sorry I don't know where he is right now Kairi, but rest assured he's most likely doing his best to get back to you." I replied; Kairi nodded tears staining her eyes.

"Here; take this." She said passing me another of the Keyblade's special key chains. "You might need it." She added before backing off so I could fly back up; with a small sigh of regret I used my gravimetric powers to return to Sky Linx.

"Finally; I've just about had enough of this nutty program." Tom complained as the Autobot rocketed back to the stars; I rolled my eyes and examined the key chain, wondering just what I would need it for.

* * *

"So now what?" Harry asked as we gathered once more inside the House of Mouse; the place was a wreck and the Heartless had swarmed everywhere, the heroes and villains were still fighting them on Main Street, but the club itself appeared deserted.

"I seal the Keyhole and the program finally ends." I replied with an air of nonchalance. "Should take me about five seconds." I added overconfidently; that's when the entire ground began to shake and the Ice Titan burst out of the floor towering above us.

"You were saying." Tom quipped eyeing me expectantly.

"Relax; we've got an ace in the hole." I stated with a smile; pulling the Fireglow summons gem from my pocket I once again traced arcane symbols with the Keyblade, Mushu the mighty guardian spirit let out a cry as he landed atop my head and skittered about.

"All right Mushu's in the house, so what great task can I help you with today?" He asked looking me in the eye; it was kind of weird having him on my head, considering the realistic level the holodeck was capable of I shouldn't have felt so out of place.

"This little lizard is going to help?" Megan asked incredulously.

"Who are you calling a lizard?" Mushu exclaimed whirling atop my head to glare at the Delaney. "I'll have you know I'm a great and powerful guardian spirit with more magic in my little pinky then you probably have in your entire body. And it's dragon, **dragon**; not lizard, I don't do that tongue thing." He added flicking his tongue out briefly for emphasis; I sighed and shook my head slightly to get his attention.

"Now that, that's out of the way do you think you can melt a little roadblock for us?" I asked indicating the Ice Titan, who for some reason was just standing there the whole time; maybe because there was nobody actually controlling it.

"Can I melt that?" He asked with a chuckle, as if the answer was obvious. "Stand back now I don't want to singe nobody here." He added pointedly eyeing Megan; inhaling deeply Mushu gathered his flame and with a mighty blast of air his fire breath exploded outwards, the Ice Titan screamed as it began to melt and within seconds it was nothing more then a sloppy wet puddle on the carpet.

"Ha, ha; who's a little lizard now?" Mushu bragged turning back to Megan yet again; who was looking rather fed up with his antics.

"I am not cleaning that up." Donald proclaimed before leading us back into the prop basement intent on finishing off this program too; even for a hologram it was going on just a little too long, the Rock Titan greeted us about halfway to our destination slamming the ground.

"Whoa, can't melt that; bye." Mushu stated hopping off my head and vanishing into the shadows.

"Now what?" Jenny asked. "I don't know about you, but I don't exactly think our swords would even dent that thing." She added; I chuckled at that and removed the final summon gem from my pocket, like Danny Fenton's' this one was unfamiliar to me, but I knew how to call forth the character within. With a loud popping sound and a great explosion of energy a very large person stood amongst us; he reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger especially with the big bulging muscles and the green military garb, but the tiny gold crown circling over his head and the giant star tipped wand told me instantly who he really was.

"Oh no." A tiny voice proclaimed from behind us.

"Aha; Timmy Turner, I knew you would be responsible for this somehow." The giant man-fairy proclaimed. "And now, I, Jorgen Von Strangle must fix up your mess!" He cried before brandishing his massive wand and pointing it at the Rock Titan; in a flash the massive creature turned into a massive flock of butterflies. "Now; where are those idiots Cosmo and Wanda!" He bellowed turning on us.

"Sorry Jorggy, but for once you're wrong; and we don't have time to play games or discuss Da Rulez, so if you'll excuse me." I stated brushing past the mountain of a fairy; his body seemed to bulge with his anger and he was about to say something when everything lost any sense of coherence, mostly because the floor tilted sharply and we were now sliding dangerously out of control towards the keyhole.

"Is this part of the program?" Jenny asked while she desperately lunged for something to hold onto.

"How should I know?" I snapped; I was starting to seriously get tired, all of this using my powers was draining my energy reserves faster. The room straightened out almost immediately; and a strange arcane symbol appeared almost directly above us, a man emerged from it landing in a crouched position with his back to us.  
He wore a long coat and I knew who he was instantly; after all he'd killed me enough times on the game before I finally beat the jerk at level one hundred, rising to his feet he produced a massive blade of impossible length and his one white feathered wing flared open behind him.

"You shall not stop us boy." He proclaimed brandishing his weapon.

"That's where you're wrong Sephiroth." Cloud stated softly moving to stand before the SOLDIER commander, Leon, Yuffie and Aerith took up defensive positions as well.

"Go seal the Keyhole." Leon ordered brandishing his Gunblade.

"Take these first." Cloud added tossing two more key chains my way; I deftly caught them and saluted the warriors as they prepared to take on the toughest opponent ever created by Squaresoft, the group now dashed forward past this final obstacle and we swiftly came upon the open keyhole once more.

"Hurry." Goofy exclaimed.

"Seal the keyhole." Donald added; and I moved to do just that, but then a massive burst of energy slammed into me and I was knocked to the floor, the Keyblade skittering away from me.

"Foolish man; you have no chance of stopping my plans this time, all will fall to darkness." A familiar voice stated rather simply as he floated down before us, he looked exactly as I remembered; dressed in a long white coat with matching gloves and black sleeves, black pants and a white shirt. His flowing purple hair whipped in an unseen wind giving the impression of movement though he was still as a statue.

"This is getting old really fast." Tom spoke up; I growled low in my breath and drew the Keyblade back into my hand, but it alone was not enough. No; at this stage in the program I was going to need a lot more, but which key chain could I use that would augment the powers of the Keyblade enough to end this. Pulling them from my pocket I examined them, Oathkeeper, Fairy Harp, Oblivion, Lionheart and Metal Chocobo; the five I'd been given by either other characters in the program or I happened to find through sheer luck. It wasn't enough; and it would be so much easier if I had Ultima Weapon.

"What's Al doing?" Jenny asked out of the side of her mouth.

"Looks like he's fiddling with a bunch of key chains." Tom replied with a look of disgust; Harry got a funny look in his eyes and pulled out the key chain Ariel had given him.

"Here ya go pal." Goofy suddenly spoke up moving to stand beside me; he handed me Olympia.

"We should have given these to you earlier." Donald added handing out Lady Luck, now that I had over half a dozen; including the Kingdom key chain already attached to the Keyblade I noticed something that wasn't part of the game. Each one had a strange slot on one end; either that or a connector piece, which gave me the sudden impression they could be linked together to form one big chain.

"So that's it." I whispered as comprehension dawned in my eyes; Donald charged Ansem boldly and unleashed a Blizzaga spell at the same instant as Aeroga sprang up around him, me and Goofy protecting us from Ansem's sudden counterattack.

"Quick!" I cried. "Did any of you find or receive key chains from the characters?" I demanded beginning to piece mine together like a jigsaw, unfortunately some of them weren't designed to fit with the ones I had.

"You mean like this?" Jenny asked holding up the key chain she'd picked up in Traverse Town, it was Three Wishes; I quickly snatched it up and connected it successfully to Olympia. Megan began to rummage in her pockets and produced one as well.

"I found this while we were running from those funny bell shaped Heartless." She explained handing me Spellbinder, I greedily took it and found its' place in the growing link of chains.

"Ariel gave me this one." Harry admitted passing me the Crabclaw; I smiled and proceeded to attach it to the Oblivion, Tom shrugged and pulled out one of his own.

"It was what led me to the secondary access panel." He revealed; I studied Pumpkinhead briefly and easily found its' place.

"Hollow Bastions' library." Sam spoke up producing the Divine Rose; I grinned as the chain began to look almost complete, but I was out of friends and we were still missing two more.

"Great; we're still missing two more." I complained frustrated; that's when a new face appeared and I recognized the Lieutenant from a few weeks prior.

"I believe you are looking for this." She stated. "I had the great misfortune of entering the holodeck earlier intent on speaking with you again Ensign; when the entrance sealed and I found myself trapped within, that kind mouse creature gave me this for safekeeping." She explained; I ignored the strange good fortune and snatched Jungle King away from her, now I only needed one more and I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't going to come easily.

"Help!" Goofy suddenly cried out as Ansem shattered his protective spell and tossed him into a pile of props on loan from Warner Brothers.

"I'm coming." I called back steeling myself for a long fight; Timmy had been watching this entire event in silent fear worried about the man who appeared to be behind all the trouble.

"Timmy, they still need one of those key chain things I think." Wanda spoke up from his right.

"But we didn't find anything like that." Cosmo added beginning to rummage in his pockets. "My Poster of Brittany Brittany, my picture of the Tooth Fairy, Jorgen's underwear, a ball of lint… Nope, no key chains." He stated eyeing the Tooth Fairy's' picture with little hearts in his eyes; Wanda shot him a glare, but turned back to her charge.

"You can wish for it." She said; Timmy nodded and prepared to make a wish when he realized he didn't think it was such a good idea if he miraculously found it, that guy was already creeping him out and he'd had Jorgen locked in a jewel.

"I don't think I should be the one to find it." He said and then his eyes fell on Naomi. "But she can and he won't question where it came from, I wish Naomi had the last key chain." He said; Wanda and Cosmo raised their wands and poofed the words, Found Key chain appearing in their little pink smoke clouds.

"Wait!" Naomi shouted as she felt something strange in her pocket; I froze having just about charged into the fray when she'd shouted, she dashed up to me and produced the final key chain needed to complete the link, it was Wishing Star. "I, I just wanted to help you so badly even though I never found one, and then I just felt this one appear in my pocket." She stammered timidly; I smiled gratefully as I clutched the final key chain to my heart.

"Thanks little bit." I whispered into her ear. "And thank you too Timmy Turner." I added to myself before I clicked the key chain into place; there was a great flash and a loud popping sound and instantly the Keyblade altered its' shape to form the Ultima Weapon.

"Strike Raid!" I screamed as the Keyblade glowed with inner power; I hurled the weapon at Ansem who was busy dodging Donald's inefficient magic attacks, he whirled to face the oncoming blade with a look of shock. It ran through him causing sparks to appear and flew back to my hand; I was ready for it and hurled it again, and again, and again until I felt I'd built up enough energy for the Judgment attack. "Take that." I added mimicking the game as I hurled the Keyblade with supreme force; Ansem chocked back the pain as he was brutally hacked, just like a videogame he wouldn't go down so easily.  
I executed another ability driven attack; this time Ragnarok, viciously cutting into him numerous times until I'd reached maximum peak and unleashed a burst of energy beams from the tip of the blade.

"Gawrsh; Al must be really mad." Goofy whispered to Donald.

"I think he's just cranky because he needs to regenerate." Donald returned careful to keep his voice down.

"Donald, Goofy!" I cried motioning towards the Keyblade; they nodded in understanding and I instigated the most powerful of the ability driven attacks inherent to the Keyblade. Ansem was so out of it already he couldn't do anything to stop us; and as the arcane symbol appeared beneath my feet and Donald and Goofy gave me their energy I smirked slightly before leaping into the air, and landing on the Keyblade's tip.  
"Trinity Limit!" The three of us shouted as one and a massive wall of energy exploded upwards from the ground; Ansem blinked furiously as he tried to see past the glare, but he could not and instantly he was struck down.  
I was tired now; and since Ansem was drawing all his power from the keyhole my fight was really rather pointless, it was just my frustration at being denied a quiet evening out with friends that had driven me to this point. And so I turned my back on the severely injured villain and proceeded to seal the keyhole; a beam of energy broke through the swirling darkness and I heard a distinctly audible click, the lock was sealed. Instantly Ansem vanished with a cry of fury and we found ourselves back upstairs in an empty; though repaired House of Mouse, Donald and Goofy high-fived each other while I collapsed to one knee using the blade to steady me.

"Computer end and save program." Harry ordered immediately; everything vanished replaced with the holodeck grid and I toppled over as the Keyblade vanished.

"Next time warn us first." Jenny demanded rushing over to my side. "Are you ok?" She asked with concern.

"Need… Regeneration." I replied softly; pointing to my watch, which was monitoring my energy levels she could see it read less then four percent.

"You did this on purpose." Tom accused marching up to me. "You must have." He added.

"Oh sure I did; I just love draining my reserves to this level because I get a charge out of it." I shot back testily as I brushed Jenny aside and forced myself to stand eyeing Tom with an icy glare.

"We know about your neural link." Harry spoke up; I sighed.

"Then report it to Janeway, I don't give a slaggin' sign function right now." I growled; and promptly took my leave, though I knew it was mostly my fatigue making me so testy.

"Harry, Tom you shouldn't have started in on him until after he had the chance to rest." Megan snapped beginning to wonder what she'd ever seen in Tom to begin with.

"Naomi let's go to bed." Sam whispered leading the girl away; the mysterious lieutenant surprised the others by speaking up.

"If it helps I did see someone leaving when I came here." She stated; Tom, Harry, Jenny and Megan turned to face her.

"Who?" Tom demanded.

"I'm sorry; his back was to me, so I didn't see his face." She returned; the others sighed and Tom decided to leave this for the morning.

"I'm going to bed; I've got a duty shift tomorrow." He added; Harry stifled a yawn and glanced at his friend.

"Do we report the neural link?" He asked; Tom eyed the Delaney's and still managed a smile.

"What's to report? That program never harmed anybody." He pointed out; Harry grinned in understanding and together the four of them left the holodeck.

"I trust the show proved entertaining." Serena whispered; Serpen could be heard hissing in annoyance, but then his presence vanished entirely. "And now; while his guard is down." She added the predatory gleam returning to her eyes; and silently she made her way from this strange room and began to head towards the young quarries' quarters.

To Be Continued; **Uh Oh, Serena's going to his quarters again... I wonder what she'll do, what she'll find; you'll just have to wait for the next chapter for the answers.**


	6. Chapter 6 Encounters of a Different Sort

**Author's Notes:** Curious one of my reviewers seems to have stopped, I don't know if that means they stopped reading; ah well it's no problem I'm sure tons of silent readers are enjoying this little tale.  
And so I give you the next installment; the Aftermath of what happened on the Holodeck and a mystery concerning both individuals currently targeting our intrepid hero, the question remains will he survive his next encounter with the woman Serena? And how will his first meeting with Serpen go? Find out by reading this chapter.

* * *

Jenny's Personal Log: Hey mom, it's me again; just wanted to say hi I suppose. That program Al shared with us really struck a chord in me just a little; you see we were all stuck in there because of some jerk, but I'm not going to get into that. All those Disney characters and the like; they really show just what Al's soul is like so to speak, he's such a big kid at heart. Not like Kyle very much, but still some of his personality traits remind me of him; like I've said maybe fifty times since I started hanging out with him a lot.  
Man I'm getting tired; sorry to cut this short mom, maybe I'll add to it in the morning, good night, I miss you and dad so much.

* * *

Stretching tense muscles I yawned exhaustedly my mouth stretching wide as it often did like a cats; making my way through the darkness of my quarters, my optics perfectly capable of seeing everything in the low almost non-existent ambience thrown from the equipment in the room I made my way towards the regeneration bed. As I passed a particularly dark clump of shadows I reached out and absentmindedly scratched at my pets' head; he growled softly enjoying the touch despite his lack of fur, falling into bed I shrugged off my pants at least and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

Serena observed the strange luminescence of the bed he slept in curiously confused with the cause, but put aside any thoughts of questioning him at the moment; instead she moved over to his personal computer and began to study the room in silence. She eyed his recent personal logs, his words recorded strangely and disjointed as if he were sharing his thoughts with someone. She glanced up at a sudden hint of movement, but could see nothing amiss; her eyes were drawn to the nearby wall and desk, his large broadsword hung on the wall above the desk glowing with obvious power.  
A piece of paper hung close by in a special frame; someone had scrawled the words 'To a real fan, Roy Disney' upon it. She raised her eyebrow curiously, but chose to move on to the contents of the table; several duplicates of the Doctors' mobile emitter rested in a small work area along side a collection of parts she could not begin to understand, among them a perfectly shaped ruby of unknown make. Much to her surprise she found a pink board hovering off the floor sitting next to the desk; written on it was the word Barbie, and a part of her wondered just what purpose this hovering contraption served. A handful of strange figures; possibly toys littered the shelf that had been placed next to the closet, a second shelf with an assortment of animals also rested nearby, these creatures she recognized as prehistoric beasts from the man's home planet of Earth.  
Opening the small closet she found no more then three Starfleet uniforms, a strange black ensemble with matching cloak labeled Sith robes, a second dark outfit complete with mask with the tag Snake-Eyes on it and a few regular outfits for practical use. Bunched up on the floor was a case and within the case was another outfit that was labeled, 'needs more work'; to which she didn't understand the reference. The outfit appeared to be some kind of uniform, though composed of what could only be an ordinary pair of pants, a simple shirt and some kind of jacket. The addition of a strange weapon that might be a gun and a large coil, which she immediately recognized as a whip confounded her, it wasn't until she spotted the tag on the hat that she began to understand at least partially, it read 'Indiana Jones Holo-program.'  
After examining his personal effects she was drawn to his sleeping form intent on finding out what exactly was the cause of the luminescence surrounding the bed she bent down, although it appeared ordinary from the top beneath was a veritable cornucopia of circuits and power sources she could not begin to comprehend. And then it dawned upon her as she recalled words from his personal logs; the most prominent she recalled had been a term used to describe, 'his new status' as he put it. Technorganic Borg; this human was no longer wholly organic; he possessed some semblance of machinery within him.

"Serpen." She began and then shook her head tossing aside the false moniker. "Callopias and Omnibus have no idea what you truly are." She whispered mulling over her little discovery. "Ah; I see now, that little gnat tricked us and yet…" She trailed off eyeing him with a hunger and a desire that defied anything she had ever known before, as though some outside influence was calling her; seducing her. She began to wonder just how best to deal with him exactly; and so she failed to notice the sudden flaring of the red optics of his pet, a creature that not even the Captain knew about just yet.

* * *

Samantha's Personal Log: Hey honey; I just put Naomi to bed, she was so excited about the holo-deck program Al shared with us tonight, she got a little flustered when she was talking about the characters on Destiny Island… I think she's developed her first crush with the character known as Tidus, I might have to talk to Al about it; her too, after all he's only a hologram. Jenny and Megan seemed to have fun tonight too; despite the fact that Al obviously intended tonight to be for Naomi, I wish you could see her; she's grown so much since first being born… And how many times have I said that? 'Chuckling Noises'  
I've said a lot about Al already I don't think I have to add anything to what's been said before; despite being stuck on the holodeck with him I was actually pleased to see him acting like a kid again, he's been spending too much time in his quarters of late. I'm not sure what he's been doing, but getting him out of there was a good idea; anyway I guess that's all I have to report today, I love you and will always love you, stay strong for us baby.

* * *

The following morning I slowly woke up feeling rejuvenated and ready to face another day that is how I felt when I first opened my eyes still groggy from sleep; seconds later I was wide awake, highly uncomfortable and considerably angered. Without moving an inch or making a sound to alert my uninvited sleeping companion; I tapped into my natural gifts, though a part of me still wondered if I would ever get used to wielding such power. And I tossed her clear out of the bed; turning over with narrowed eyes I wasn't expecting to find who I found.

"Is this how you greet every strange woman in your bed?" Serena asked with a sly smirk lazily rising from her place on the floor.

"I wouldn't know; you're actually the first." I replied with a growl; doing my best to hide the fact that I'd actually enjoyed the sensation of waking up with her beside me. "So just what the slag did you think you were doing?" I demanded climbing into a sitting position and straightening the shirt I was still wearing.

"You looked like you could use a friend." She replied with a brief shrug; a hint of something different in her tone this time.

"Scrap metal, you're really getting on my nerves princess, all those lustful stares whenever I'm in the mess hall. That little stunt you pulled a while back and now this, I must admit to being slightly flattered, but if you wanted a companion you sure aren't going about it the right way." I stated coolly; ignoring the fact that a relationship wasn't a good idea for anybody involved with me, because I'd just wind up leaving them behind in the end. And yet a part of me wanted, even needed something; I was a young man after all and quite full of energy when it concerned certain things.

"How could you be so blind?" She wondered clearly confused. "To be faced with such a prospect as having me and not act upon it, just what is your problem?" She demanded; I sighed angrily and tossed my covers aside climbing steadily to my feet.

"I don't have a problem!" I snapped. "I just don't see a future for us; you're methods are quite frankly creeping me out, and I won't always be here, in this universe." I pointedly reminded not caring that I was standing in practically just my underwear, besides my shirts were always longer these days to hide that fact if I ever had company; I still had a nagging dislike of wearing clothes in the privacy of my own quarters a trait left over from my days of being a stay at home kind of person.

"Universe?" She repeated dumbly; and then her eyes flashed briefly as if sensing something. "You are not like any man I ever had the luxury to pursue." She stated. "None have ever found the will to reject my advances." She continued shifting her gaze to Ravage briefly as if sensing him before shaking her head as if to clear it of nagging suspicion. "This makes me want you all the more." She finally revealed.

"By the pit what kind of woman are you?" I exclaimed raising my arms in exasperation.

"One who knows what she wants, we shall speak again." She stated confidently before promptly leaving my quarters; I sighed in complete frustration and turned to regard my pet.

"Not one word, just… Not one word." I said tired with trying to rationalize this woman; then I promptly made my way into the refresher for a much needed cold shower, _yes definitely a very cold shower._

* * *

Serpen stood outside waiting as Serena emerged he approached joining her brisk pace; he could smell the desire pooling off her in waves and his answer was made all the clear, she had not satisfied herself with this man yet, but he asked all the same.

"Is he one of us yet?" His voice was kept carefully low; Serena shook her head.

"Soon; I could tell he was highly aroused by my early morning surprise." She replied with a twisted smile; Serpen thought back upon his skills from the previous evening.

"He is quite the remarkable individual, like nothing I have encountered before; do you know how he uses the very elements about him?" Serpen wondered; Serena shook her head, but chose not to speak and he shrugged as if it were of no consequence. "I look forward to your failure so that I may face him in combat and feast upon his still beating heart." He stated his own abnormally wide grin spreading across his face; Serena scowled as she glanced secretly at her partner, she would not let this one slip away. He was too unique to fall to the likes of Serpen; suddenly he reached out and stroked her neck with one finger, normally she wouldn't mind these overtures for they pleased her, but something deep within her made her cringe at his touch and she felt something entirely alien to her. Was this revulsion? It boded further study.

* * *

"Good morning Ensign." Neelix exclaimed cheerfully as I sidled up to the bar, so to speak.

"Mornin' Neelix, what's on the menu today?" I asked picking up a plate and eyeing the selection fearful of what I might discover.

"Well we have Syreckian Trollanter, which roughly translates to the meat of a small species of rodent; quite tasty I might add. Gumerian Nut bread, I can't believe how many members of the crew have requested this of late. Eternian Shral-beast, Frexian eggs; quite the rare delicacy and of course the staple, tried and true BLT." Neelix replied enthusiastically dishing out a small portion of everything as he introduced me to them; I eyed the selection questionably, with a half-hearted attempt at a smile, but it only came off as a sour grimace.

"Is there a specific reason you're giving me more then I could possibly eat in one meal?" I asked feeling a little nauseous as the Trollanter seemed to move of its own accord.

"Yes, well the Captain doesn't think the Trollanter will be quite edible for humans; and she's a little worried about the Frexian eggs as well, since you're immune to most toxins she." Neelix began to explain; I held up my hand to stop him not really wishing him to finish his current train of thought.

"Of course." I began and then something hit me. "Wait a second; did you say Eternian?" I asked recognizing the name instantly.

"Why yes; I believe I did." Neelix replied slightly confused. "Do you know of it?"

"Depends, it doesn't happen to have an old castle by the name of Grayskull does it?" I wondered trying hard not to laugh or feel conscientious about the question.

"I don't think so." He returned losing focus for a minute as he considered the planet. "I could look into it for you." He offered happy to be of any service; I shook my head.

"Never mind; probably just one of those ironic coincidences." I returned moving off to a quiet corner of the room; I caught sight of Serena as she entered the room and proceeded to procure her own meal, it did nothing for my appetite. I could sense her eyes shifting to me on occasion as she selected her meal, but before she could even think of joining me someone else did. Someone who was eyeing me with a hunger vastly different from hers; a hunger that sent shivers up and down my back and turned my blood cold.

"Greetings Ensign; I understand my sister has made her intentions known to you." He stated his smile looking almost inhuman as he continued to eye me with his cold black orb-like eyes.

"Sister?" I repeated. "Call me crazy, but I don't see the resemblance." I added with a slight chuckle; he glared at me and faster then I could believe possible his hand lashed out and ensnared my wrist. I flinched in sudden pain as my wrist shattered some of the bone fragments breaking through my skin, but I shunted the pain aside knowing it would heal momentarily; what shocked me more was the fact that some of my bones had pierced his flesh and a thick green ichor was pouring out.

"Know this; I will kill you." He stated coldly. "Certainly not this day, but one day; and then oh how I shall relish breaking the spirits of your friends. Perhaps turning that precious little girl into my personal slave." He continued his eyes flashing with malicious glee, my jaw clenched and I would have summoned my broadsword then and there to deal with him, but someone placed a hand upon my shoulder.

"Behave yourself Serpen." Serena scolded casually sitting next to me. "Or I shall report this brazen foolishness to him." She added startling me completely.

"Stay out of thisssss Serena." Serpen ordered his tongue flicking out as he hissed; his tone clearly designed to threaten the woman beside me.

"Not until I'm finished with him." She snapped plucking my wrist from Serpens' hand; she hadn't noticed that it had healed yet. "Come with me and we'll see to this." She stated surprising me with her gentleness.

"No." Serpen growled reaching out yet again. "I wish to finish this encounter properly." He snarled; miraculously no one appeared to be noticing this little meeting of the minds, with a low growl of my own I shoved free of Serena's grasp and jammed my fingers into the mans windpipe taking him by surprise, he clutched at his injury with raw fury in his eyes.

"You wish to finish this encounter properly." I repeated his words almost verbatim. "Fine; then witness the power within." I hissed softly; and I reached deep down calling briefly upon my aura, the golden glow tore into his eyes and clearly pained him, while Serena looked taken aback as the energies washed over the three of us.

Serpen hissed shying away from the purity of my soul and for the briefest of instances I saw his true form; he was quick to flee, I turned to Serena expecting to see a similar image, but she'd already vanished and so I quickly dampened my gift.

"So; this is round two, Q." I remarked softly. "Clever, very clever." I added laughing loudly and suddenly taking the others in the room by surprise; quietly I resumed eating briefly regarding the path Serpen had used to flee my presence.

* * *

Serpen fumed silently his darkness echoing the pain still felt from coming into contact with that disgusting essence; he loathed its' lingering effects like nothing else, he would pay the fool back for this. Forget Omnibus' orders towards him; that man would suffer greatly, but first he would have to recover a little and reconsider his options.

* * *

Serena had rushed back to her quarters the moment she'd felt the man's true essence; she now sat on her bed balled up into the fetal position staring at the nothingness between the bed and the floor so intently that her eyes were no longer in focus. That had both been wonderful and frightening; his essence was so pure, it brought shame to her heart for the thoughts she had been harboring. She was actually weeping bitterly as she was forced to reevaluate all the choices in her life; millennia ago she had been so foolish, thinking she knew it all.  
Omnibus' words had felt true then, but now they left a bitter ashen taste in her mouth; she felt so isolated, so alone, how could she ever hope to atone for what she almost did? Why should she even try?

"Kernior." She whispered so soft it was barely audible; it didn't matter though, he'd been dead a long time. "Oh my father, I am lost now; show me a sign please, what am I to do?" She pleaded with nothingness; and the silent observer of these events took pity upon her, for she could see how her equal hurt. She would answer the beseeching as best as she could; in the guise of her chosen, the young man could help this one by giving her the purpose she sought.

* * *

"May I sit with you?" The lieutenant asked uncertainly; Jenny glanced up with a smile and indicated that she should join her.

"Serena, wasn't it?" She asked; Serena nodded glancing around to make certain that Serpen or Alain wasn't around, she didn't want them to know about this.

"I have a question, about Ensign Desrochers." Serena began uncertainly; Jenny eyed her curiously, and then comprehension dawned.

"Oooo; you have the hots for him don't you." She exclaimed in a hushed tone attempting to be discreet; Serena did something she had not done in eons, she blushed and averted her gaze as if she was years younger. "You do." Jenny exclaimed with a slight gasp.

"Please… Jenny, I… I don't know what to do." Serena returned; she sighed and slumped slightly in her seat. "I've never really felt this way about someone before; I'm ashamed to admit that… I've used men in the past simply to… Well, achieve pleasure." She added adopting an odd term of speech; Jenny smiled and squeezed her hand in sympathy.

"We've all been there, well maybe not all of us." She amended eyeing Sam who was sitting with Naomi enjoying some time together. "You don't know how to approach him." She surmised.

"Yes, that's it exactly." Serena admitted looking at Jenny hopefully. "Can you help?" She wondered.

"I'm not sure; I know Al, we tried setting him up before and it never worked…" She paused eyeing Serena with pursed lips. "But I think the two of you might just be a good match." She added thoughtfully, Serena suddenly felt someone's gaze upon her; glancing up she spotted Serpen and suddenly felt very uneasy.

"I'm sorry; I… I think I made a mistake." She returned quickly climbing to her feet; her gaze was filled with shame and fear, though it was true that she was powerful enough to destroy Omnibus, it was equally true that he had the power to destroy her. She'd made a mistake coming to this human for help; what could she have possibly been thinking.

"No, please." Jenny tried to get her to stay, but she couldn't.

"It was nice talking with you… Perhaps…I just have to go." She stammered before quickly striding for the exit; Serpen narrowed his eyes watching her, it was unlike Serena to be so jumpy.

"She must have been affected adversely as well." He mused with a sick smile. "Opportunity presents itself; once I am capable I shall destroy the puny human." He stated before sensing the aura once again; he shuddered slightly and slipped outside before the man could see him.

"That was weird." Jenny remarked as Megan sat down beside her; her sister eyed her curiously.

"What was?" She wondered.

"Nothing important." Jenny returned hastily; she didn't feel like sharing this particular development with her sister, at least not until she had the chance to speak with Serena in private.

To Be Continued; **Serena has seemingly stumbled upon a little snag and seems to be suffering from a crisis of faith in her Overlord, Omnibus... What does this portend? And how will it affect the coming confrontation between Al and these dark creatures? You'll just have to wait to find out.**


	7. Chapter 7 Demons, Goddesses and BorgOhmy

**Author's Notes: **And now another chapter, very little else to say concerning it; see ya round until the end of the chapter.

* * *

Serpen crashed to the ground in annoyance as the ship shook; he never could understand these primitive creatures, but he had to do this in order to discover the weaknesses of his enemy and exploit them. Or at least that was before; before he discovered the partial truth, now he was stuck still recovering from that accursed golden essence; it had been many weeks and still he felt slightly weak from the encounter.

"Report." The female Captain ordered; Serpen sneered as he slipped dexterously back in position, unlike dear Serenity he had no choice, but to play the part of a crewman. It was most distracting; and this shrunken humanoid guise was murder for a creature as naturally lithe as himself.

"We've dropped out of warp; we're at a dead stop." The tattooed male revealed; such a primitive human, perhaps Omnibus would allow him to devour the creature later.

"Cause?" The Captain wondered; Serpen rolled his eyes, the cause was obvious to his senses, but he had to maintain the illusion.

"Unknown." The Vulcan returned. "Engines are operational." He added; once again the vessel shook and Serpen grimaced, such delays, he so wished to destroy the upstart human known as Alain.

"I'm reading gravimetric forces around the ship." Tattoo man spoke up playing with his little control console. "They're disrupting our power flow." He revealed; Serpen smiled impossibly wide at the thought of triggering a ship wide explosion, but maintained his patience.

"Control systems are offline; I no longer have access to communications, deflector, weapons." The Vulcan began to list off from his readings; Serpen fed his fantasies further by incorporating the fall of Voyager, perhaps he would even take slaves as he had threatened, it had been an eternity since his last mating ritual.

"Scan for vessels; tractor beams, anything that might explain what's holding us here." The Captain ordered; there was one possible slave, then again she seemed too strong willed to be broken. Perhaps he would take the human's female friends; those twins and the mother of that annoying female brat, yes a delicious irony that. And the brat; she was too young to be a pleasure slave, but she could serve in other capacities.

"I believe I have an explanation." The Vulcan informed shortly after interrupting Serpen's thoughts. "Sensors show that we've entered a layer of sub-space; it's disrupting our warp field." He stated; such annoyingly scientific minded creatures, to call such a complex development as the natural phenomena sub-space… What a demeaning archaic people; to mock the gifts of creation with their horrid technological mindsets, those that died to create it were most likely boiling with rage in whatever after life they journeyed to.

"Do we have impulse?" The Captain demanded turning to tattoo man.

"Yes." He replied.

"Engage at full." She ordered; the ship began to buck and weave, Serpen growled slightly at the stupidity.

"No change in our position." The Vulcan informed; naturally, did they truly think their vessel could escape so easily? The other life forms; the ones causing this particular phenomena, weren't finished yet in their studies.

"Rout all available power to the engines." The Captain ordered; her crew moved to comply, Serpen however had, had enough.

"I am feeling unwell; I mussssst go to sssssickbay." He informed a fellow crewman; she nodded in understanding and took over his station so that he could leave; now he'd have to spend time with that aggravating excuse for a medic just to propagate his falsehood. Anything however was better then wasting another hour on this poor excuse for a space faring vessels' bridge, besides he needed to continue to heal and recover his lost speech control; the hissing was starting to attract attention from some of the more curious crewmen.

* * *

I did not like what the Captain was planning; she wanted a Borg Transwarp coil, I did not blame her and it would be nice to know what the Queen was planning to try and reclaim me. I knew she wanted me; she did not lose easily and she sure as hell wouldn't give up on me. And after the events of that annoying episode titled Bliss, well I was just glad I hadn't been affected by the creature; most likely because Q was looking out for me or something. My spy would have to be cunning; capable of rendering himself undetectable, and highly intelligent, which meant I had to choose someone other than Ravage. Not that he was unintelligent, but he was far more useful to me here, and so I had worked long hours and created a new program.  
I smiled as the program activated; the tiny purple cassette lay in the palm of my hand and once again I marveled at how effective I was in using these duplicate mobile emitters, I prodded it gently with my forefinger and the cassette altered shape. It transformed into a large purple and black bat; with gold sonic based weapons on its' back, I had done it again.

"How do you feel Ratbat?" I inquired using Soundwave's voice; the creature squeaked and made bat like noises speaking his own language, a language I was perfectly capable of understanding, he was perfectly functional. I grinned darkly at that; my spy was fully operational and prepared; this meant I only had to figure out how to get him inside the Collective. "Now your majesty; let's see what you're up to." I mused softly playing a hand over Ratbats' head and treating him as if he were a cherished pet, which wasn't too far from the truth; I had a double motive for using the Cassetticons as my template after all.

* * *

"The sphere is maintaining course." B'Elanna called; Chakotay nodded.

"Move the shuttle in closer." He ordered; I watched and waited, Ratbat was going to get aboard of course, but that didn't mean I wasn't willing to watch this mission unfold.

"The Borg are still ignoring it." Tom alerted; I chuckled softly, of course they'd ignore it.

"Bridge to transporter room two; they're not taking the bait." Chakotay called via com; I shook my head, the Borg were not gullible.

"Shuttle status?" Janeway's voice trickled out of the intercom; I shot a brief glance to tactical and gathered the information for myself.

"All systems go; false bio readings holding steady." He returned, would that I could crush that vessel in my bare hands; that would certainly give the queen pause.

"Commander; increase the output of the shuttle's warp profile, that should provide a more inviting target." Janeway ordered; Chakotay indicated Tom should follow through with it.

"Or you could have just used my biosignals; I'm a very inviting target." I remarked in jest; though the bitter hatred in my tone was clear, Chakotay shot me a brief glare willing me to silence with his eyes, I really didn't have to obey him, but I wasn't going to fall into that trap again. Overconfidence due to my newfound status was not a good idea; remember, with great power there comes great responsibility.

"They've got it." Paris exclaimed. "They're pulling it in; toward a docking port along the central radius, five hundred meters." He reported; the anticipation was great now, everyone knew they'd only get one shot at this. "Two hundred." He added. "They're dropping shields."

"Energize." Chakotay ordered.

"They're in." B'Elanna informed after complying; I turned slightly to get a better view of the Doctors' station.

"Bio dampeners are stable; they're as good as invisible." He informed.

"Now all we need is a little time and a lot of luck." I paraphrased Prime; Chakotay did his best to ignore me, remaining professional wasn't always easy when I was around, I tended to speak up a bit to boldly at times, but then again listening to all this episode dialogue without anything to buffer me like commercial breaks… It tended to get real old, real fast.

"The sphere?" The commander wondered seeking new information.

"The shields are back up." B'Elanna informed. "They're assimilating the shuttle."

"Keep a sensor lock on the away team; maintain course." He commanded; I sighed, what a waste of a perfectly good shuttle. The mission was proceeding according to plan; I watched every monitor I could intently, tuning out any further conversations the crew would engage in. I waited knowing what to expect; as the away team returned I received my signal and smiled, Ratbat had succeeded, time to return to my quarters and trust my little spy to his mission.

* * *

Personal Log: The queen is beginning to annoy me; she is playing a very dangerous game with Seven, she is attempting to comprehend the human race, but not for the purposes she is filling Seven's head with. I do not for one second believe she is doing all this simply to better understand humans; she must be trying to gauge my reactions, attempting to garner certain responses oh yes, for what other reason could she possibly have?

* * *

"It turns out his hunch was right; the drone had been receiving direct commands from the Borg Queen." Chakotay was saying as I returned focus to this impromptu meeting; the senior staff of course knew about the queen considering my presence altered certain events, but that didn't mean they knew what to expect from her or that much about her even. "I analyzed the com signals; look at the transpectral frequencies." He suggested; the Captain glanced down at the pad.

"They match the ones that were sent to Seven." She noted thoughtfully. "What did the Hansens learn about the queen?" She wondered.

"I'm afraid they never got the chance to find out." Chakotay returned regretfully. "And someone here is choosing not to be forthright with information." He added eyeing me pointedly; I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Temporal prime directive may not be something I like to toss around; considering it annoys the hell out of me, personally." I returned. "But that doesn't mean I won't uphold the standards of the Federation and its' beliefs concerning people with more knowledge pertaining to future events then is wise." I shot back; Chakotay sighed, but the Captain nodded understanding my reasons.

"One thing is certain; she contacted Seven of Nine, and the next day Seven rejoined the Borg." She observed an intensity permeating her eyes as she glanced between the two of us. "Obviously she exerts some influence."

"You think Seven was instructed to leave Voyager?" Chakotay wondered curiously.

"Instructed." Janeway repeated before tossing the data pad aside. "Coerced; she insisted she join the away team, she was adamant that if she didn't board that sphere our mission would fail." The Captain revealed. "Sounds to me like she was being threatened. My instincts told me she was holding something back, but I… I didn't pursue it; I let her go." She elaborated semi-bitterly.

"If you hadn't; we might all be Drones by now." Chakotay countered.

"What's running through that collective mind of yours?" The Captain wondered moving over to the view port. "You've got thousands of species to choose from, billions of individuals; why Seven of Nine? You should have assimilated us when you had the chance." She spoke almost as though directly to the queen; I smirked at Chakotays' dumbfounded expression, he did not know what to make of this.

"Captain?" He inquired uncertainly.

"I want you to keep analyzing the Hansen's database." She ordered lowering her coffee to her table. "Compile a list of every technology they created to track the Borg; assemble a team of engineers to assist you." She ordered reclaiming her uniforms outer shirt; I stiffened slightly at that, despite the healing process I had been undergoing, my desires to crush the entire collective were hard to stifle still.

"If you're planning a rescue mission; that research will only take us so far." Chakotay pointed out eliciting a slight nod from me.

"Oh?" The Captain returned thoughtfully.

"I've studied their log entries long enough to realize that as brilliant as the Hansens were; they made a fatal mistake, they become overconfident." He returned somberly; I couldn't argue with that, the Borg as a whole should be avoided not studied up close.

"We won't make the same mistake." Janeway returned before leaving; I was quick to follow, knowing that she wanted to talk to me on a more personal level. We strode together down the corridors; with me waiting patiently for her to speak, I had time after all.  
"Only the senior staff is aware of the queens' existence; thanks to you Ensign Desrochers, I know she's real despite the Hansen's reports. Is there anything else you can tell me about her?" She asked in a low tone.

"Not much that wouldn't jeopardize the temporal prime directive; and you did order me to keep things to myself." I returned with a small smile; she glanced up at me with one of her own.

"God I hate hearing that term brandied around like an excuse, but you do have a point." She agreed chuckling softly. "Still; anything you can offer would be greatly appreciated."

"Do not take her lightly Captain; I am well aware you intend to meet her face to face, be cautious. And do not expect her defeat to come lightly; when one falls, the Borg are more then capable of creating another, though I am uncertain as to how they accomplish this." I admitted; sharing any insights on the queen was a touchy subject for me, my photographic memory occasionally dredged up the day of assimilation and that reviled kiss.

"Is there any weakness?" She wondered; I shook my head and paused to let a human lieutenant pass.

"The Borg have very little in the way of weaknesses; they can adapt to just about anything as you well know, with exception to my newfound extrasensory capabilities." I pointed out. "But I will not be part of this mission; despite whatever she may say a part of her still wishes to possess her chosen mate." I added my voice slightly laced with a fear I loathed to ever admit to, but losing your individuality was a rather compelling reason to avoid the Borg at all costs. The Captain placed a hand on my shoulder supportively as we finally reached the mess hall.

"We won't let her have you again." She stated reassuringly. "I won't." She added with greater emphasis; I smiled gratefully at my captain and returned her gesture.

"I wish you luck Captain; do not underestimate her." I whispered once more; she shot me a small smile and nodded.

"Don't worry Ensign; I don't intend to let her win." She returned before we went our separate ways; this mission would succeed, but alas I could not participate, it would be too dangerous and there was much I still had to do with my life.

* * *

Jenny paused uncertainly outside the quarters to Lieutenant Serena; she wanted to talk with her again, but she didn't really know what to say, the woman seemed to be avoiding all contact from the rest of the crew of late. There was no sense in waiting any further; she knew when someone was troubled and needed a friendly ear to listen, and she was the type not to turn down a cry for help from a fellow woman.

"Here goes nothing." She whispered punching the chime; there was no sound from within at first, Serena was eyeing the door fearfully uncertain of what to expect.

"Who is it?" She called tentatively; if Callopias had come to deal with her she would be ready.

"Jenny Delaney; Al's friend." Jenny called back; Serena couldn't believe what she was hearing, that woman had sought her out.

"Uh… Come in." She invited dumbly; the door flew open and Jenny stepped in a friendly though uncertain smile on her lips, as soon as she saw the current state of Serena's quarters she knew the woman had it bad.

"What a mess." She exclaimed eyeing the piles of dirty clothes; Serena averted her gaze embarrassed that she would allow herself to forget to maintain her immaculate appearance.

"Yeah; I kind of forgot to clean up after myself." She apologized beginning to put the dirty clothes into the replicator, or whatever the attachment was really called.

"Have you been eating at least?" Jenny asked concernedly; Serena nodded smiling slightly.

"Mister Neelix can be quite… Persuasive." She remarked. "He's been delivering my meals personally; I think he knew something was wrong the moment I sat down to talk with you, I've never really interacted with any of the crew." She admitted; Jenny began to help her clean up knowing that it was the least she could do.

"Why did you break off our conversation so abruptly?" She wondered; Serena sighed and eyed the other woman.

"It's complicated; and I don't think I should share it with you." She returned; Jenny shook her head and shot the other woman an encouraging smile.

"If you can't trust me, who can you trust?" She asked; Serena eyed her debating whether or not to reveal the truth of her appearance and status to this woman, Jenny had come to her with no thought of furthering her own ambitions. In fact most humans didn't really have the same ambitions as her kind; and it had been such a long time since she had someone for girl talk.

"Jenny, can you keep a secret?" She demanded gazing into the other woman's eyes with a steely resolve; Jenny didn't know what to say, she'd never really had any secrets worth keeping… At least none that her sister wasn't privy to as well; maybe just this once keeping her mouth shut was a good idea.

"That depends; is it a life threatening secret?" She asked semi in jest; the serious expression on Serena's face shocked Jenny. "Wow; this must really be big." She remarked; Serena nodded, the last of her dirty clothes had been returned to the recycling aspect of the replicator so she sat down. Jenny moved to sit beside her; Serena sighed softly and curled her legs up alongside her so that she could sit facing the other woman.  
She began to talk; confidently at first, but soon became hesitant as she began to explain her ties to Omnibus. Why she was here; she didn't know what to expect, Jenny was clearly frightened at first, but her fear soon gave way to compassion and instinctively she placed a hand on the disguised Goddesses' knee; Serena told of how her heart was torn and how Serpen would easily leap at the chance to destroy her if he felt any weakness.  
When she finished her explanations there was a lengthy silence; she began to fear that Jenny was judging her, but she needn't have worried.

"I don't know what you should do." Jenny finally admitted with a look of apology. "You've obviously changed your ways; and you really have a problem, but… I just don't know what you should do, I'm sorry."

"That's ok." Serena returned with a relieved sigh. "It's just good to get all of this off my chest, Jenny you're his friend; please don't tell him." She pleaded gazing into her eyes directly; Jenny smiled and pulled the Goddess into a hug.

"I won't tell anyone; I swear, but I think you should talk to Al about this; if nothing else he needs to know just exactly what he's going to be facing." She remarked; Serena sighed once again, and Jenny gave her a friendly hug.

"I still can't face him right now… But I promise I will talk to him before Callopias gets out of hand." She stated; Jenny nodded accepting this, she really didn't know what else she could do so she climbed to her feet and offered a smile.

"I hope everything works out for you Serenity." She stated using the Goddesses' true name. "If you don't mind I'd like to try and be friends." She added hesitantly; Serena smiled slightly.

"I'd like that; you know it has been literally millions of years since I last had someone I could confide in." She admitted with a wink; Jenny laughed slightly and turned to make her leave, she paused at the door just out of sensor range.

"Maybe we could go to the holodeck together sometime; get your mind off of your troubles." She suggested; Serena smiled gratefully, she didn't know a human could be so compassionate and understanding towards her kind.

"That sounds like a great idea." She returned softly; Jenny grinned.

"Great; I'll call you to set something up one of these days." She stated; Serena nodded and the two parted ways, already her heart felt lighter. Jenny however was very disturbed; though she promised not to tell anyone, maybe, just maybe Megan should know about this too. She'd have to think about it very carefully before breaking Serena's trust like that; she may not know everything, but she was certain of one thing, Q probably never thought his little tests would wind up like this.

* * *

I sat in deep meditation within my quarters; I'd been there since the rescue mission was finalized working out how certain parts fit where, the programs had come a long way in a short span, I now had three more Cassetticons within the mobile emitters I'd created. Of course after making a good fifty of the things; all in rapid succession I'd somehow lost the knowledge to make more, which left little doubt in my mind that Q had been responsible in pushing me towards making them.  
But now I was following my own logical thought processes as I inserted the power cell; something I felt might have to be replaced once in a millennia if I used this weapon too often, but in all actuality I was probably not going to use it as often as one might think. Building it simply gave me something to do when I wasn't busy or spending time with my own little circle of friends; the chime sounded breaking me from my thoughts, I willed the doors to open not once turning from my task. Captain Janeway entered having recently returned; she paused at the sight of me, or at least my scanners indicated as much.

"Success." I stated simply applying one final piece into the delicate inner workings.

"I've met the queen face to face as you put it." She agreed striding into my room; I smiled slightly not once bothering to look at her as I began the difficult task of fitting the jewel in precise alignment. "She didn't seem too concerned about you; in fact she didn't even mention you." She pointed out; I smiled at that.

"She wouldn't have; a part of her may still be interested in reclaiming me, but her intent for Seven was genuine…"I paused as I succeeded in my task. "I simply chose to believe otherwise because of some part of me that retains an unhealthy amount of arrogance; the universe does not revolve around me after all." I added sighing softly with relief as everything fit into place, climbing off the floor I retracted my tendrils as I turned to face the Captain.

"It'll be some time before the collective tries anything I'd imagine." She stated thoughtfully. "The ship the Queen was on was destroyed." She added; I nodded at that noting with some bemusement that she was eyeing the few emitters I had left out with a hint of disapproval. Ignoring her obvious curiosity I moved over to the replicator and silently requested a glass of seven up; no matter how many changes personally reflected in my life, I still couldn't stand the taste of water.

"Captain; I'm grateful for your continued trust in me, but with both the Borg and Q after me in a sense." I paused to take a sip. "Well perhaps I should leave the ship." I contemplated; she shook her head and strode purposefully up to me.

"I won't have that kind of talk on this ship mister." She countered in a gentle and slightly joking tone; I shifted positions slightly and sighed once more, everything was beginning to feel so… Routine; despite my earlier trip to the holodeck those few weeks back, I was beginning to feel a little wound up.

"When's the last time you took some time off?" She wondered showing a concern for me I hadn't expected.

"Not that long ago actually, but with everything I've had to do in engineering; plus my pet projects here to further guard against possible Q nonsense." I trailed off as I looked around the room and noted with some disdain that I'd left several days worth of clothes lying around.

"Tomorrow I am officially taking you off the duty shift." She stated firmly taking me by surprise. "I want you to have some fun, relax, spend more time with Naomi; and that's an order." She added shooting me a warm smile; I grinned at that before stifling a sudden yawn, was it so late already? She eyed me in slight concern; beginning to strike me as a mother hen, I think her soft spot for hard luck cases also included me in the ranks.

"I know, I know; get some rest." I muttered with a chuckle; slipping over to the dresser I opened a drawer, mainly for show, no sense into alerting the Captain as to my sleeping habits. "Good night Captain; and thank you for continuing to watch out for me." I spoke softly; she didn't say anything more as she eyed my tools one more time before leaving, once she was gone I shot a slight glance into the shadows well aware of my silent body guard.

"Monitor Ratbats' transmissions." I ordered. "And go watch over Naomi for me." I requested; the invisible Decepticon hologram growled an affirmative and left, and I swiftly succumbed to sleep, I'd been awake too long perfecting my new little toy; and yet, it was so worth it.

* * *

Serpen stood within his quarters; he was still having trouble recovering from the man's essence and the only reason he could fathom for the delay was because of his human disguise, and so in the privacy of his own room he changed. The skin parted as he shed the human form; his body elongated until once more he was his proper height and his tail uncurled, having to walk everywhere as a filthy biped was not something he enjoyed.

"My massssster." He called softly opening a link to Omnibus; who was currently devastating worlds beyond the known galaxy recovering his own strength.

"Speak Callopias." The dark voice of the demon overlord demanded; the demon servant bowed his head to show his respect despite the lack of visual connection between himself and his master.

"Serenity hassssss fallen into desssssspair since coming into contact with hisssss aura; she hassssss lost the will to perform her dutiesssssss." Callopias hissed; Omnibus did not lash out, instead he burst into a dark chuckle.

"That's what we get for having a Goddess on our side old friend; I recall you mentioning at the time that she was not to be trusted." He remarked casually; Omnibus would not hold a grudge against his former favored, for after all the three of them were the last of their kind. And the thing about Goddesses was; they were easy to break and enslave, experience taught him that much before he was imprisoned for all those long millennia.

"Then; if I were to desssssstroy our quarry, it would not disssssssplease you?" Callopias asked hopefully; already he was feeling completely healed once more, the lingering effects of the human's essence no longer tainted him.

"You have my permission of course to proceed with your assignment; however I would suggest waiting just a little while longer, something about this human intrigues me and I wish to personally observe him." Omnibus returned; Callopias lowered his head in supplication, for he knew better then to go back on his master's wishes.

"As you command Omnibussssssss; however, you are far from here, mussssst I truly wait for you to arrive?" He wondered; Omnibus growled something unintelligible.

"I have attained enough power to observe him from my current location; do not presume such weaknesses ever again." He snapped; Callopias narrowed his eyes briefly at the retort, but swiftly executed a formal bow.

"My appologiessssss massssster, it shall not happen again." He returned softly his tongue flicking out as he spoke. "I will leave you to your observationssssssssss then." He added; Omnibus made his position clear by swiftly terminating their link and Callopias sat brooding in the dark as he waited for his human guise to reform around him, perhaps it was time that he found a new master.

To Be Continued; **Callopias is a true threat, bigger then the Borg or the Draconians combined; I fear our intrepid hero may not be up to defeating a true demonic entitiy... But then again I already know the outcome, stay rooted to your seats for the next update should be even more thrilling... I hope.**


	8. Chapter 8 Equinox Redux

**Author's Notes:** Not much to say about this chapter; it's a bit more disjointed with more scene breaks then I would perhaps care for, but if I wrote up every little scene and adventure from the Episodes and Al's personal life with the Delaneys', Samantha and Naomi it could get very... Boring, Tedious and just plain Dull. So Enjoy this sonner then later update and be prepared for a second update either at the end of this week or the beginning of next, I haven't decided yet.

* * *

Serena glanced up slightly fearful as she sensed him entering the mess hall; but she needn't have worried, he was so preoccupied with what the little girl was saying that he wasn't paying much attention to the other people around him. She chose to watch him; she'd never really seen him interacting with young people, then again Naomi Wildman was the only young child on the ship, still she was curious to know how he treated her. 

"I'm not sure about that Naomi; I don't think your mom would approve of us fighting in a real war with holographic Transformers." He told the little girl; she pouted as she sat down clutching a data pad in her hands.

"Please Al?" She pleaded surprising Serena with the familiar term; she hadn't thought he'd insist that even the girl call him by his first name.

"Why not go back to the House of Mouse?" He tried to change her mind with a different suggestion, but Naomi stubbornly clung to her desires shaking her head emphatically; he sighed. "Ok… I'll figure something out." He finally relented; Naomi squealed with delight and leapt into his lap giving him a hug, despite this act of familiarity Serena could tell it discomforted the young man. She smiled despite herself; he certainly seemed to have a way with children, as she watched him helping teach her something the Goddesses' mind began to wander. What would his children look like? How would he react to them? And what if she was the one to find out the answers to these questions?

"Could I have his child?" She wondered whispering to herself; closing her eyes she began to look into his future, what she saw there brought unexpected tears to her eyes and she desperately wished to hide them. "Such a great burden to place upon so young a being." She whispered glancing around for fear that Serpen might be around.

"My, my, my; you've certainly lost the nerve haven't you?" A voice remarked; she glanced around fearfully, in a flash the being that had freed them sat before her.

"What do you want puny one?" She hissed angry with him for intruding on her moment of solace; Q did something surprising, he offered an expression of apology and placed a hand on her shoulder in a display of sympathy.

"I just wanted to stop by and congratulate you on turning around; I know it's really not much, but I thought you could hear those words at least once." He stated; Serena glared at him bitterly, but said nothing. Q decided he'd overstayed his welcome and flashed out; quite surprisingly no one seemed to have even noticed his appearance. Serena turned to eye the young man once more; he was laughing along with Naomi at something and the girl was actually looking up at him with a glimmer of devotion in her eyes. The disguised Goddess couldn't take any more; she rose to her feet quickly and raced from the mess hall, Neelix saw her go and frowned concerned with her melancholy expression, but he couldn't speak to her personally just yet… Perhaps he should ask Jenny to talk with her; the two seemed to have bonded slightly.

* * *

Jenny's Personal Log; Mom I wish you were here; and not just because I miss you, but because I could really use your advice. You know that woman I told you about; that friend I'd made who's in love with Alain… Er I mean Ensign Desrochers. Well she was just watching him with Naomi today and she… She's so sad mom; she wants to have kids, she told me as much. And it really shocked me; I mean here's this who knows how many year old Goddess, and she's desperate to have someone who'll love her unconditionally.  
It's really kind of depressing; and I just can't do anything for her, I mean if I was a man… Oh God I can't believe I almost said that out loud; sorry about that mom, but for some reason I seem to really want to help her somehow. I think its Al's personality kind of rubbing off on me; Megan once told me it was some kind of complex… I think she called it a Hero Complex; you know when you have such a big heart that you can't stand seeing anybody suffering, especially people you call friends. Al actually mentioned it once, but I really wasn't paying attention to him at the time; we were kind of in the middle of something on the holodeck and I was just trying to survive… That man and his holo-novels… So you can see why I could use your advice huh?  
I think I'd better get to my duty shift; take my mind off of this latest revelation, being friends with a Goddess in emotional turmoil is kind of a high maintenance job.

* * *

"I do so despise temporal paradoxes." I muttered to myself as the ship began to shake; for some reason I wasn't really in the mood to deal with everything concerning Seven's little temporal mission so I'd done my best to ignore many of the strange events. 

"Identify yourself." Seven ordered; I glanced up, somehow I'd wound up in the self-same corridor as her; this wasn't going to be fun.

"No time." The other human returned; before I could react they vanished in the temporal transport, I sighed with annoyance.

"Temporal paradoxes are more trouble then their worth; I'll probably blow up with the ship again, but this time I wonder if I'll remember anything." I grumbled to myself; having faced a similar scene like this before; though it was hardly important, time travel was worse then anything else I could ever imagine. Voyager exploded and my last conscious thought was, '_good thing I'm nigh immortal'_, before the world went black.

* * *

I awoke with a start; memories hit me briefly, but soon they faded away and I groaned slightly as my body registered a brief flash of pain, as if I'd been subject to an explosion recently and was forced to remolecularize myself. 

"Ensign Desrochers to Captain Janeway." I called after tapping my com badge.

"Yes Ensign?" The Captain returned curiously; I swallowed some bile and tried to loosen my tongue with a sip of seven up before continuing.

"Is… Is everything; temporally sound?" I inquired a sudden smirk playing across my features.

"Ensign?" She returned sounding slightly confused. "An odd choice of terms, but yes; everything is temporally sound, as you put it." She returned; her voice seemed to indicate she was smiling, I sighed with relief.

"Ah; thank you Captain, Ensign Desrochers out." I stated severing communication; I settled back down for the night and groaned softly at the phantom pain. "Remind me to request an off ship trip the next time anything involving time travel and the like occurs." I grumbled speaking to Ravage before promptly managing to return to sleep; of course there seemed to be no point to my disjointed memories, or the fact that something felt like I'd been out of the loop during most of the events depicted in Relativity, I had a nagging suspicion Q had something to do with that.

* * *

Q smiled as he pulled away from his observations and turned to Q and his little q; who happened to not be so little anymore, Q eyed her husband with slight annoyance. 

"What was the whole point of that?" She demanded; Q smiled with that mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"No point really; I just felt like having a little fun, of course he doesn't remember my flashing him to that particular point in time multiple times." He returned with a laugh. "Sometimes it's just too much fun to mess about with things; and watching him die several times happened to be rather entertaining, of course if he remembered any of it I'd be getting quite the lecture right about now." He added thoughtfully.

"You're positively morbid at times." She returned; Q smirked at that and turned to his son.

"Come on q; let's see what fun we can find in the Gamma quadrant." He stated; and together both Q flashed off leaving a decidedly worried Q behind.

"He's starting to act like he did before, which isn't all together a bad thing I suppose, but if he's not careful you might lose your chosen warrior." She remarked; the previously silent observer seemed to smile at that and a light tinkling laughter floated down.

"Let the men have their fun; sometimes it's necessary." She returned. "Besides; my gifted child is no longer in danger of falling to darkness; he has already faced that road and will choose death before taking it once more." She added. "And I did entrust this mission to Q; however if you would wish to intervene, then perhaps you could do me a small favor." She requested politely; Q turned all her attention to the invisible God, communicating between realities was easy, but Earth Prime's creator tended to prefer remaining unseen.

"What did you have in mind?" She wondered; Earth Prime's deity obviously smiled once more and began to whisper her request in Q's ear, Q's eyes lit up in obvious glee as she heard the request and without answering the question she flashed out to perform it.

* * *

Personal Log: The Equinox has just been discovered; I'm not exactly all that familiar with the events surrounding this vessel, though I seem to recall the members of her crew have drastically violated the Prime Directive. Perhaps it would be in my best interest to remain uninvolved with this particular event; then again, I've been so bored cleaning injection manifolds and monitoring ships' systems of late the opportunity to get involved with what some fans probably consider a key moment in the trek Voyager undertakes to return to the Alpha Quadrant might not be such a bad idea.

* * *

"I thought I'd find you here." Captain Ransom remarked as he rendezvoused with one of his crewmen; they were across the mess hall from me, but my audio circuits could detect many things. 

"How could I resist after two years on emergency rations." The crewman returned; I grinned at that, it must definitely be hard when you're under constant attack.

"Don't get too comfortable." Ransom returned; _what an odd name, I wonder if he has any family back in the Alpha Quadrant._ "If Janeway's any indication; these people will never understand." He whispered.

"They're going to find out eventually." Max pointed out; Ransom shifted positions almost hunching over the man.

"Not if we keep them out of the research lab." He countered. "And away from the warp core injectors, and be careful what you say around their crew, that includes old girlfriends." He added selecting a small portion of Max's meal and ingesting a bit.

"Understood." Max returned.

"Mmm; not bad." Ransom complimented after tasting Neelix's cooking; I grinned as I sipped my diet coke, old habits were hard to break. The Captain took off leaving Max behind; I chuckled softly, always difficult to remain neutral in these circumstances.

"One thing's for certain; you'd never catch Jean-Luc doing anything like that." A familiar voice remarked; I glanced across from me to see Q sitting there, it was slightly unexpected.

"Ransom had to Captain his ship under difficult circumstances, which I suppose is no true excuse; then again the human condition is a funny thing sometimes." I remarked casually.

"Just thought I'd pop in to see how you were doing; and ask a certain question that hasn't really been puzzling me, but I am curious." Q returned admitting something I never thought he would in mixed company.

"Ask away." I insisted doing my best to hide my smile; once you got past the whole tried to kill me thing, Q was at least pleasant to talk to on occasion.

"You've been doing your best to avoid upsetting continuity; so much so that your logs and your personal duty shifts tend to remain in small out of the way places during many of the events you're familiar with on Television." He observed eyeing my choice of meals briefly with a look of mild disgust before returning eye contact to me. "Just why is that; you could alter the very fabric of reality if you wanted to." He stated.

"Two reasons, the first being I don't want to do anything that could jeopardize this ships chances of getting home when it's supposed to." I began ticking the reasons off with one hand. "And the other being I just don't care to meddle as much as you do." I stated picking up my glass and taking another sip. "Besides I've been rather busy perfecting that tricorder of mine; and creating complex programs the likes of my silent body guard over there isn't as simplistic as it might appear on the show." I added pointedly; Q smiled widely and shook his head.

"You fan-boys are a curious breed indeed; I've been to a lot of alternate realities over the years, but I don't think I've ever met someone so… Less willing to take risks." He finished with a pointed glance at some of the other crewmen eyeing us; obviously they were a little concerned at his presence here. "Ah well; I'm certain I can get you to lose those inhibitions of yours in time." He added with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes yet again before he flashed out, I shook my head smiling uncontrollably at his words.

"Ours is not to reason why, ours is simply to live life one day at a time." I recited horribly garbling the quote. "Then again; if its risks he wants to see, perhaps I should look into just how young Serena is doing." I added with a soft chuckle before returning to my meal to finish it.

* * *

The ship was now under attack; I had realistically only one choice open to me, erecting a gravity field around me I strode purposefully towards the bridge, I just hoped this was a good idea.

* * *

The woman known as Serena glared at the alien foolish enough to attack her within her quarters; it took one look at the disguised Goddess and fled in fear, this was not one to be trifled with.

* * *

The two attacking Serpen on the other hand weren't so lucky; the disguised demon ensnared them with his arms, and before they could die he opened his mouth impossibly wide and ate them slowly, one at a time. He smiled darkly as he sat down to digest his meal; this attack was just what he needed, a chance to unleash certain pent up frustrations upon the mortal fools without disobeying Omnibus.

* * *

I reached the bridge after the initial battle was finished; everything seemed perfectly under control, deactivating the gravitational field I'd created I strode purposefully towards Chakotay. 

"I'll get him to sickbay." I stated manipulating a smaller gravitational field and levitating him towards the turbo lift.

"Thank you ensign; all hands I want a deck by deck search, the Doctor is missing." The Captain ordered via com as I vanished with the commander.

"We may not always see things eye to eye Commander, but I'm not going to hold that against you." I quipped light heartedly; even though he was unconscious and probably couldn't hear me. "Besides; I doubt we can spare the power for site to site transports just yet, and Q did want to see me get more involved." I added thoughtfully.

* * *

Shortly after Sickbay was swamped with casualties; I was doing my best to help Tom and the spare medical staff, but it wasn't easy. The patient he was working on died while I fought to stabilize another; it was far from easy, even with all my knowledge I had little actual experience healing people. 

"Any sign of the Doc?" Tom asked the Captain upon her arrival.

"I've got him right here." She returned holding up his emitter briefly.

"Please state the nature of… Don't bother." Equinox's EMH spoke as he was reactivated; I knew it wouldn't be practical to expose the switch, so I just kept working.

"Come on; pull together." I whispered fighting with my patient; I didn't know his name, but I didn't want him to die any more then if he was a close personal friend of mine.

"You should start with Chakotay." Tom suggested leaving the Commanders' side as he spoke. "I've got him stabilized, but he's got internal injuries." He elaborated.

"We found your emitter on deck nine." Janeway informed proceeding towards her first officer and putting aside her phaser rifle.

"I was taken hostage by the Equinox crew." He lied preparing his equipment as he spoke. "I deactivated myself to escape; did you… Stop them?" He wondered.

"No." Janeway replied.

"I'd ask for a status report, but I'm not sure I want to hear it." Chakotay muttered as the Doctor began to heal his internal injuries; at least this EMH still held himself to the Hippocratic oath. _Which reminds me; I should tell our Doc all about Xena and Hippocrates sometime, he'd probably find it fascinating; of course I only remember the episode, a pity I didn't stick around long enough to participate in it._

"Harry's analyzing the sound we've been hearing; he thinks it's some form of communication." The Captain informed; I couldn't recall all the events of this episode, I often missed a lot of the… Less favorite episodes; so I couldn't recall if Harry was right or not in his assumptions.

"Well I once figured out how to speak with a Tirellian Seapod; this couldn't be that much harder." Chakotay returned; at last my patient stabilized and I let out a tired sigh, I'd expended too much energy the past few hours fending off the attackers, transporting Chakotay, and now here, definitely time to regenerate.

"Once I get out of sickbay I'll lend him a hand." Chakotay added as I climbed to my feet; silently nodding to the two security guards I left the wounded in the fully capable hands of the medical staff and headed back to quarters.

"Ensign." A voice suddenly called out hurriedly; I turned around to see Sam lugging Naomi with her. "Al; please, can you take her to your quarters… She'll… Be safer there." She requested; I nodded happily and picked the little bit up into my arms.

"No problem Sam." I returned; I decided not to tell her that I was going to be regenerating mostly while Naomi stayed with me, but then again I did have a few special allies who could help watch over her. "Are Megan and Jenny ok?" I asked worriedly.

"What?" Sam returned. "Oh; yes they're fine, they weren't in an area that was attacked." She revealed before dashing back off to her duty station; I yawned once more and started walking to the turbo lift.

"Al; I'm worried about Seven, she was on the Equinox when it took off." Naomi spoke up gazing at me with fear filled eyes.

"S'ok little bit; Seven's tough, she'll be just fine." I whispered encouragingly feeling as if I was about to collapse. "So; were you scared?"

"A lot." She admitted burying her face into my shoulder so suddenly it took me by surprise. "Why did they attack us?" She whispered her voice trembling slightly.

"Because Captain Ransom did something very wrong." I replied. "And when we tried to help him; they assumed we were just as evil as he was." I added.

"I never liked that Captain Ransom; when he looked at me it sent shivers down my spine." She admitted; I laughed slightly and entered my room, placing her on the floor I stumbled over to the bed.

"I've got to regenerate or I'll be no good to anybody little bit; don't worry though, you'll be safe here." I assured before tumbling into bed.

"Can I play with your toys?" She asked hopefully; I nodded even as another giant yawn escaped me and I lowered some of the replicated Transformers off the shelf for her. "Have an efficient regeneration." She stated adopting her drone like demeanor; it was all a game to her and it brought a little smile to my lips as I began to nod off. _I wish I had children like her to care for; something feels like it's missing from my life and whenever I look after her I always feel complete._

* * *

Personal Log Supplemental; As usual I've been avoiding episodic events, I've found myself spending more time with the Delaneys and Naomi of late, just the other day we spent another short evening at the House of Mouse and I think the little bit had a good time. Thanks to Reginald Barclay, formerly of the Enterprise; Voyager has successfully made contact with Earth for the first time in years, the crew morale has obviously sky rocketed with the possibilities this represents. I have started to strongly consider just what I would do back home without access to this brilliant array of technological wonders, the outlook is not so good. Therefore I have begun to compile a list of items that will be necessary for my continued well being once I return to my home reality.  
The Federation will most likely not approve of some of my choices; especially not the Klingon cloaking array, fortunately I happen to know a certain Ferengi who would be most useful in assisting me in procuring these items, the question I find myself asking is… Just how do I procure a large enough quantity of items to pay for his services?

* * *

I grinned as I finished the last of the programmed emitters and ended my log recording; I chuckled and gently placed it on the desk, the queen was indeed in for a nasty surprise when she showed up to reclaim me. As I sat back from the desk the air shimmered nearby briefly and a human sized red and black robot appeared. 

"Ratbat's reports are getting more infrequent." He remarked I nodded at that.

"It is somewhat difficult to find suitable Borg transmissions to interact with." I pointed out; Rumble shrugged in agreement.

"I still don't like it, incidentally; Beastbox and Squalktalk are progressing quicker then we'd hoped." He reported; I took that in stride and rose from my seat moving over to the closet.

"The others have been quiet of late; I've only seen Ravage actively." I spoke up; Rumble growled slightly and crossed his arms.

"They're doing as ordered; Frenzy and Laserbeak are progressing slowly unfortunately, altering the ships defensive and offensive systems is not as we had thought." He grumbled; I nodded yet again slightly this time, and began to change into a period ensemble.

"I thought as much; I only ordered them to attempt it for the sake of giving them something to do, bad enough I have to leave Buzzsaw offline I wouldn't want to hear complaining from any of my other favorites." I revealed forgoing the hat Tom had supplied and examining the tie thoughtfully.

"Going to partake of this… Fair Haven program?" Rumble wondered with a smirk; I eyed him with annoyance, but nodded.

"What I do in my off-time is unimportant; just keep things running smoothly." I ordered deciding against the tie; Rumble offered a slight nod accompanied by a grunt and returned to stealth mode, I strode confidently from my quarters and made my way to the holodecks, having a half-dozen or more Decepticons running around invisibly might not have met with the Captain's approval. But I needed to test out my engineering capabilities when it came to creating capable warriors; especially if my hunch was correct and the Borg Queen started actively seeking me again.

To Be Continued; **Oh wow; Serena is really feeling something now, her mind becoming conflicted and her looking into his future like that must have really shaken her to the core. I wonder what she saw? Alas I can't reveal that, it would... Upset the flow of continuity, and ruin the surprise. Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter, which should involve the ultimate confrontation with Serpen AKA Callopias, if I'm not mistaken...**


	9. Chapter 9 Last Stand of a Demon

**Author's Notes:** I can't contain myself any longer; I must update with this last chapter, although it is not the end of Forbidden Fruit for there shall be an Epilogue, which will set everything up for the next story in the saga. For the final confrontation between Alain and Serpen AKA Callopias I'm not sure which tune you should imagine, pick whatever epic battle theme you feel like while reading it to listen too, at least in your head if you don't feel like actually listening... Heck even the fight music from Star Trek TOS. 'Chuckles'.

* * *

Megan's Personal Log: This ship is starting to feel like a prison; I can't stand being cooped up with hardly anything interesting to do, we work in stellar cartography and exploration may be a decent job, but it gets boring really fast when all you do is chart stars and planets.  
And I never thought I would ever admit to that; I thought I heard one of the others in our department contemplating suicide, it's something we normally would never think of, but it's there all the same. I'm just glad I was wrong; the crewman was actually talking about a holodeck program involving a murder mystery that seemed to be a suicide, I never could understand the fascination with mysteries.

I suppose that means taking a job with Starfleet was pretty stupid of me; then again I've always been one for taking risks and enjoying a good challenge, if it weren't for Al and his myriad array of distinctly original holo-novels I'd probably be even worse off. That Beast Wars program he created was so thrilling; it was actually fun interacting with the characters and getting to know them on a personal level, they were a lot like humans, only not. The James Bond adventures are really fun too; a great way to escape from the everyday life of ship living, a part of me wishes I could use the holodeck to get rid of certain urges though. But we never get enough time scheduled with more and more crewmembers finding less to do outside the holodeck; it's getting so bad the Captain contemplated opening up Holodeck one for us, but vetoed that idea when Tom tried to create a massive program to run in both holodecks… She felt it would be inappropriate to have people running back and forth, since they're not connected. Al got to talking with us the other day about how people in his world take us all for granted; to them Star Trek is just an hour long television show, an escape from reality and a glance at a possible future filled with peace and tolerance.  
He said that if they wound up stuck in the Delta Quadrant for years without anything to do then they'd see things a hell of a lot differently; and you know what, I have to agree with him. We live this life; it's not just some stupid means of entertainment, we face life and death with countless aliens and then there's the day to day hustle and bustle that tends to get repetitive when you're billions of light years from Earth. I'm homesick; I miss my parents, my friends back in the Alpha Quadrant, men who aren't just focused with one thing… A lot of the male crewmembers were decent when we first started out, but as time goes on you can only stand celibacy so much; as Al pointed out to us in a semi-rant… 'The writers of the show may have had a ball "creating" the episodes script and all that, but they never tried to tackle any of the really serious and less important stuff. Hell they only touched upon the lack of "physical intimacy" once or twice and usually dealing with the Vulcan's Pon Farr, or as a bit of humor.'  
And he went on for about an hour; and we just sat and listened to him, along with whoever else was in the mess hall at the time, Neelix didn't exactly agree, and Naomi probably didn't understand half of it, but… Well he really puts things in perspective some times and seems to have a better understanding of the personal needs we all share as a whole, but that's probably because he's never been with a woman physically in all his life… Ooooooo I shouldn't have said that. 'Giggling Noises'

God I need something; a shower maybe, or maybe I should just pull out one of those little toys me and Jenny replicated… Er; Computer End Recording.

* * *

Serpen was growing impatient yet again; Serenity was of no help, and Omnibus had been carefully observing the quarry for weeks. At last he had, had enough and decided that even if it went against the orders of his master it would be worth it to be rid of the annoying mortal. He found the quarry in cargo bay one; no one else was around at the time and he was apparently meditating, practicing his skills, Serpen smiled darkly and removed his weapon from its' resting place.

* * *

I sensed a presence and turned to find Serpen standing before me; he was holding a sword more ancient then even my own, it was curved like a scimitar and decorated with many strange jewels the likes of which I'd never seen. Somewhat appropriately it possessed the pattern of a serpent wound around the hilt poised to strike the victim; I nodded in greeting and summoned my sword with a simple mental command.

"Sssso you have come prepared." He stated with narrowed eyes.

"You can not beat me." I stated in turn bringing up my blade in a formal salute; he sneered at my boast.

"We shall ssssee." He countered striding up to me to begin the attack; he swung fast, unexpected like the serpent of his true form, but I managed to block the attack. He recoiled quickly and brought his blade around stinging my wrist with the flat of the blade; I shrugged off the strike and countered with a slash of my own. We danced about the cargo bay; blades singing each one unwilling to give ground, he was damnable fast and twice as agile as Xena, he managed to get in a few strikes. Fortunately my healing factor took care of that; leaping over the next cut I slammed him in the face with my pommel, he cursed and sent me flying into several empty cargo containers.  
He charged me with a yell; I rolled aside and lashed out with a kick to the chest, it was his turn to careen through the air and collide with the decking, with a hiss he was back darting in so fast I couldn't block in time. I felt a very quick jab and recoiled out of reflex; glancing at the back of my hand I saw two pinpricks quickly heal, that snake on the hilt wasn't just a decoration. He smiled widely as I caught sight of the serpent returning to its' resting place; some of my blood glistened on its' fangs, I shrugged aside his pitiful ploy knowing that whatever venom he had just unleashed would not effect me.  
We danced once more almost flying about the room as our swords blocked every cut, and parried every slash, this battle wasn't as difficult as I would have imagined until I sensed a strange feeling come over me. My brow began to grow slick with perspiration and my breathing became shallow; Serpen grinned sinisterly believing he would soon prove victorious, I desperately blocked another attack and tried vainly to shrug aside this lethargic feeling.

"This is how you intend to claim victory; through dishonorable combat." I spat doing my best to ignore the spinning of the room.

"I do what I mussssst, for a warrior that proved worrisome to the great Omnibussssssss; you are clearly not assss formidable an opponent as we were led to believe." He returned smugly; I could barely stand, my nanoprobes were so focused on combating this poison I could not truly fight him in this state, unless I had a little extra oomph of my own.

"I just need to catch my second wind." I shot back with a sickly grin. "Trans Tech Armor, Engage!" I exclaimed; time to test out my little toy, the watch on my wrist, which I'd long ago perfected, expanded into millions of thin fibers. It engulfed my body and adopted the armorized form I'd created using my newfound intelligence; Serpen took a step back clearly surprised by this new development. Gritting my teeth my optics flared a bright red and willing myself to move I charged him; now it was his turn to be hard pressed to fight back as I pounded rapid paced cuts, slashes and bone jarring hits into his blade. I was using up a lot of energy in a fast amount of time hoping to drive him back; my plan was desperate, but I had limited options, he had taken me unawares.  
Finally; with one mighty swing my blade cut through his hand causing him to cry out in pain as his sword fell to the cool decking still clutched by a five-digit hand. He hissed darkly at me with narrowed eyes; snatching his hand and sword from the deck he fled, leaving me to collapse to the floor. My armor retracted immediately and cold metallic hands suddenly encircled my waist forcing me back to my feet.

"We should have finished him." Rumble muttered; Ravage growled low in his throat as he also appeared, fortunately it was very late in the ships' night so no one would see them helping me.

"Take me…Serena." I managed to gasp out; Rumble shook his head, but Ravage shot him a sharp growl.

"Alright, alright I'll do it; still, I don't trust that female." He grumbled before helping me out of the room; I couldn't say anything more because my nanoprobes were now very devoted to healing me, I could barely walk.

* * *

Serena looked up in surprise as her chime sounded; she placed the data pad she'd been studying aside and moved towards it, since she had no duties aboard this vessel thanks to the strange man who freed them she knew no one would come looking for her except of course Jenny who had spent many a time talking with her and gossiping. Therefore she knew that only one other person could be outside that door; and if Serpen was going to kill her she would teach him the error of his ways, but as the door opened she was startled to find two metallic creatures and '**him**'.

"Our creator is in a real bad way thanks to your snake lovin' friend." The red and black humanoid creature informed.

"That son of a bitch." She cursed; quickly she took the almost unconscious form from his strange friends and gently placed him on the couch. "Are you members of this crew?" She wondered; the strange creature shook his head while the feline inspired construct growled low in his throat.

"Holograms." He simply replied; Serena nodded and quickly produced a tiny vial of clear liquid, forcing it down his throat she waited patiently and gently wiped some of the perspiration from his brow. He gasped and began to thrash around; she grabbed him and held him down, knowing that the anti-venom must work, had to work, but could it be too late? Finally he opened his eyes and his skin lost the waxy sheen; she smiled down at him, though she didn't understand why she felt this way.

"You helped me?" He asked mystified. "I thought demons usually cared less what happens to their enemies, even ones as beautiful as you." He added with a smile; she turned away from him her cheeks growing warm all of a sudden, no man had ever complimented her willingly before either and it felt… Nice.

"I am not a demon." She whispered softly; Al struggled into a sitting position as his body swiftly began to repair internal damages.

"But." He began in confusion before she turned back to face him and gently placed a finger to his lips.

"I will share with you what you need to know, but in order to do so you must trust me." She stated; Rumble snorted and crossed his arms once again taking on a more menacing stance.

"If I wish to learn about my enemy; I must trust my enemy." He stated rather philosophically, she smiled and nervously twisted the empty vial in her hand.

"This will be done faster if we forego speech." She explained truthfully; and then before he could debate her remark or question her she pressed in and placed her lips upon his. Rumble was about to protest, but Ravage pounced in front of him; preventing him from interfering.  
The past unfurled; images assailing Alain in rapid succession, he saw a distant time, long before even the Earth existed. Great and powerful beings strode about the cosmos ignorant of the lesser creatures that served them; they were little better then slaves, and so treated as such, but one day a warrior rose from their ranks. This warrior was determined to free his people; his determination brought many up short as they realized that they had been acting selfishly, the Gods chose to renounce their service and relinquish their slaves. But the demons chose to keep theirs; a great war tore apart the very fabric of reality, Gods and Mortals stood side by side facing the Demons, and a few Gods who had lost themselves to the darkness.  
In the end the great demon overlord Omnibus was captured along with his two most trusted lieutenants; Callopias and Serenity, they were imprisoned for a time to await their trial and subsequent executions, but before that could happen the Universe itself ended with a bang.

"What?" Al tried to ask, but he couldn't even voice his question, he slumped in her arms and lost consciousness.

"You killed him!" Rumble accused loudly leveling one of his back mounted weapons on the disguised Goddess; Serena shook her head and pointed to his chest, which was still rising and falling.

"He merely sleeps." She stated; Ravage nodded with a low growl and told Rumble he should leave, with one last parting look of distrust Rumble shimmered back into stealth mode and left the room. "He must regenerate." She remarked knowingly. "I read the doctors' report to Starfleet; I know what he truly is…" She trailed off with a forlorn sigh and proceeded to lift him. "Callopias will not attack again tonight, but in the morning." She left the obvious unsaid and Ravage ducked his head in gratitude; then he too vanished from sight, Serena headed to his quarters intent on getting him some much needed rest in his own bed. She looked down upon his sleeping face and felt a pang in her heart; she didn't like seeing him hurt, but what could she do to help him? And then she realized she'd already done it; with a tiny sigh she gently kissed his forehead, knowing that she might never get this opportunity again.

* * *

Meanwhile Serpen was in his own quarters glaring at his severed hand; finally he could stand it no longer, and opening his mouth wide he ingested it, it would take hours to regenerate a new one. A darkness clouded over his eyes as an inner rage bubbled to the surface; he had been cheated an easy victory by a cheap trick, but next time, next time he would kill the would be hero.

* * *

I awoke the next morning to the sound of tears; stirring from my bed I glanced up to see a sight I had never expected, the woman who had long made it clear her intentions towards me was weeping bitterly.

"Uh; Serena, hey what's wrong?" I asked uncertainly; I wasn't used to finding Goddesses' crying in my bedroom, she looked up in shock and hastily wiped her tears.

"It's nothing." She returned averting her gaze. "How do you feel?" She asked.

"Perfectly fine; although I doubt I really needed whatever antidote you gave me, I was starting to feel a little better before you forced it into my system." I revealed thoughtfully; she shot me an incredulous look and I smiled. "I can't be killed so easily."

"I know." She stated softly. "I read the Doctors' report concerning your." She trailed off and glanced pointedly at the bed.

"Well; I suppose Callopias won't wait around for ever." I sighed climbing out of bed and reaching for my sword; Serna was on me faster then I would have given her credit, her eyes flaring in anger.

"You intend to kill him." She accused.

"Hey; it's called self-defense, unless you forgot they're trying to kill me." I shot back; she averted her gaze once more, but quickly brought a steely gaze upon me.

"I suppose that means you intend to kill me too." She stated bitterly.

"What?" I blurted totally unprepared for that. "I may not hold honor as highly as a Klingon, but I still believe in it, I would never kill someone who had no ill intentions towards me or my friends." I returned; she fell into a heap on the couch and began to weep once again.

"We are the last of our kind; I'm the last Goddess, what am I supposed to do after you've killed them?" She wondered; I reached out a hand uncertainly wishing to comfort her, but then snatched it back extremely confused with why I even cared.

"Ah; look, Serena I'm sorry about this having to happen, but I am destined to find darkness wherever I may find it… At least; that's what I'm led to believe." I admitted softly. "I wish there was another way." I added for lack of anything else to say; without warning the woman flung herself at me forcing me to drop my sword or risk hurting her, she buried her face into my chest. Something that felt strange considering the inconsistencies in our heights; she clutched at me as if that alone could ease her depression.

"Why?" She asked. "Why am I falling now? I've served Omnibus for years and never questioned my beliefs, what's so different now?" She demanded; I patted her back awkwardly and glanced around the room for any kind of escape.

"Because you touched his aura." A familiar voice spoke up startling us; in a flash Queenie appeared a smile on her face. "I'll take it from here big boy; you'd better go stop your adversary before he decides to take a hostage." She strongly suggested; I shot a grateful look at the female Q and reclaimed my sword, before leaving I pocketed the hilt of my pet project and fervently hoped that it wouldn't blow up in my face.

* * *

I found Serpen waiting for me in the holodeck; apparently he'd been expecting me, he smiled dangerously and tilted his head briefly to the side.

"Computer; seal the doors, activate program Callopias." He ordered; the doors sealed and the room vanished, in its place I found myself standing in the center of the Olympus Coliseum. The stands were packed with hundreds of characters; most of them my own from the House of Mouse program I used, and they all started to cheer as soon as they saw me.

"Remember kid; concentrate." Philoctedes advised before he moved off from my side to sit amongst the crowd.

"Interesting." I remarked striding closer to Serpen and pausing half-way bringing my sword up in a defensive position.

"I thought it fitting you should at leasssst die among perceived friendsssss." He stated raising his own blade.

"Let us end this; I grow tired of your conssssstant chatter." I quipped mocking his speech impediment.

"Agreed." He snarled his eyes dancing with hatred; charging forward at break neck speeds his blade tore through my arm leaving a deep gash; I leapt back ducked low and came up intending to spear him, but he evaded my attack and rammed his hand across my back. I grunted in pain and spun around lashing out across his face; I managed to wound him a jagged scar appearing on his cheek, with a hiss he darted in and attempted to poison me a second time. I danced back; using my gravitational mastery to render it light enough so that I could move faster, and then I darted back in and drove my sword into his abdomen. Instead of a cry of pain his eyes simply narrowed and I felt a deep jolt run up the blade and through my arms, I was forced backward and our dance exploded into rapid-paced movements. I felt like I was ripping off the Matrix as I ducked a slice intending to behead me and performed a Trinity like flip-kick into his face; his body seemed to undulate and his flesh literally crawled in a manner it should not be capable of.  
This was starting to turn into something out of X-Files; or possibly the Twilight Zone, with another brief pause I began to dart around like a humming bird attempting to cut him again. He managed to cut me again; of course by now my previous wound had healed, but his weapon was still painful.

"Come on kid; you can take this bum!" Phil shouted from the sidelines; in fact a lot of the audience was cheering for me, telling me I could win. I smiled at their antics; despite it all Callopias had done me a favor, with a quick shake of my head I returned focus to the fight.

"I grow tired of thisssss." He suddenly spat; and with one final kick he sent me crashing to the hard dirt floor several meters away. Serpen stood stock still for the briefest of moments; and then with a mighty cry his human flesh tore itself asunder, I watched in confusion until I remembered that the human face was not his true one. A deep rattling sound was heard and Callopias rose from the dust his transformation had stirred revealing his true demon form.

"Oh there's a big surprise, honestly who didn't see that coming?" Iago asked of no one in particular; a fourteen foot long half-man, half-snake now stood before me, or more accurately rested on his partially coiled tail. His now longer arms ended not in hands, but snake heads and they thrashed wildly before he sent a burst of dark energy my way. I spun out of its' path and returned fire with a burst of electricity; the human like visage hissed again and opened its' mouth wide unleashing a burst of venom, the hand holding my sword was struck and it fell away with a clatter as I screamed in pain.  
Callopias uncoiled and leapt at me all three mouths poised to strike; I managed to evade him with great difficulty and reached for my sword left handed, clutching the hilt tightly causing the blood to drain from my hand I began to search for the power of Justice to help me. Oscillating around me the serpent form struck out again this time breaking my leg with his rattle tipped tail because I hadn't been fast enough. Cursing my own slowness I tried diving low for a quick slash only to go flying back into the air and come down hard on my back. Callopias lashed out quickly and ensnared me with his tail wrapping me tightly intending to squeeze me into submission, and crush every bone in my body; I couldn't activate the armor like this. The only hope I had was the gift within; and if I remembered correctly focusing on my blade allowed me to at least tap into it.  
Holding my sword high one handed I closed my eyes despite my predicament and stilled my breath as Xena taught me for better concentration; I felt a stirring, and my lips turned up in a smile.

"I am Justice!" I cried; my aura flaring outwardly and burning the demon, he released me and backed up, the jostling of my body caused me great agony and my concentration was lost. The power left me as quickly as it had come; Callopias hissed in pain blood red welts running across his lower body, his left eye was milky white, blinded by the brilliance of my essence. Struggling back to my feet I prepared for the next move; and silently he studied me ill-prepared to begin this dance once again, he flicked out his tongue slowly anticipating victory or perhaps merely savoring the taste of my pain.

"It appears we are evenly matched." I stated. "Shall we begin round two?"

* * *

While this was going on Serena had been left with the female Q; who eyed her warily, but she offered a smile. Serena wiped a few remaining tears aside and sought answers to questions she had never thought of before.

"You really don't have far to look for your answers." Queenie remarked casually dropping her snooty tone of voice as she spoke with this equal. "He's all you really need to let go of the past and build a new future." She added.

"I am not for him." Serena stated. "I can see that now; I saw it when we first met, but I chose to ignore it. His soul mate waits for him still." She revealed with a sad sigh; Queenie smiled partially taking pity on the damaged Goddess.

"So what if he has a soul mate?" She demanded. "It's not like all men are destined to be with only one woman in their life; and trust me that one will be able to give you purpose again." She stated with a little wink; Serena eyed this creature uncertainly.

"But; how can I take something from him that is not mine to take?" She wondered; Queenie laughed openly and moved to sit beside the Goddess.

"You would be his first." She remarked as if discussing what to wear or the weather. "But that doesn't mean much to his kind; men are all alike you know, no matter what era you're from."

"His first." Serena repeated incredulously. "A man that… Alluring; has never been with a woman before in his life?" She asked; Queenie nodded and Serena burst out laughing, though her laughter was directed more at herself then this little tidbit of information.  
"No wonder; my previous toys all tended to be fathers or even mothers of great families, I've never…" She trailed off with a sudden blush as she realized how inappropriate it was to say something like that.

"You asked for a sign; I'm giving you one, he's not looking for a life long companion right now." Queenie stated absentmindedly tugging at her uniform. "So you won't get him all emotionally needy or anything like that."

"I suppose I could always try living with him; here." Serena reluctantly admitted. "But once he tells the Captain about us, about Callopias; I'll probably have to start working duty shifts like the rest of the crew." She added with a small sigh.

"Yes I know; these humans are so… tiresome." Queenie agreed with a slight shake of her head. "I'm afraid we can't do anything for you about that, but at least I'm certain you'll be able to make up your own mind now." She added; and with that she flashed back to wherever she'd come from, Serena smiled gratefully at the creature and after glancing around slightly she decided to tidy up his room and wait for him, yes Callopias would not win this day.

* * *

Callopias was proving tiresome; I had at least recovered the use of my right hand, since that was the hand I primarily used fighting him had proven a real challenge and I vowed never to let anyone injure me in that fashion again. Leaping out of range of his striking tail I swiped at a small trickle of perspiration on my brow and re-evaluated this encounter; without any control over the power within I could not transform into Justice, and I could not fight him as an equal. This is what I assumed Justice would allow me to do; my only hope was to end this quickly, and that would require me getting in close enough to make a killing blow. And then the germ of an idea entered my head; with a small smile I began to draw closer to my enemy, once more coming into range of his awesome tail, the hard rattle on the end slammed into my side and I felt ribs cracking as blood spurted out of my mouth.  
Smiling in what he assumed was his triumph the beast ensnared me once again; I brought my sword carefully into range, but he batted it aside at the last instant. And then instead of biting me as I had thought, he tossed me into the air and rammed his rattle into my back; I felt my spine give and I felt pain flaring through every part of my body. I landed in a heap at his trunk and he reared up hissing in anticipation of a killing strike; my sword had flown clear across the area and I couldn't reach it in time; however as luck would have it I just happened to have a spare. I waited; he moved slowly savoring his apparent victory, but as soon as he was in range I struck, much like a serpent myself. The hilt ignited with a familiar snap-hiss and a crimson blade extended inches from my hand, it pierced his neck and before he could react I twisted my wrist and spun the lightsaber in a complete arc that should have decapitated him. He recoiled in complete surprise and as I watched energy seemed to leak out of the gash in his neck; he tried reaching for me with desperate snake-head hands, but it was too late and I could see that now.

"No." He gurgled energy itself spilling from his mouth; that was when I had a very sudden and frightening thought, this demon wasn't the same as the ones from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hell; for all I knew he could be more like something out of a Japanese anime, and if that were the case when he died he might explode and take Voyager with him. And there was no time for me to do anything; I could barely move since my spine was taking it's sweet time to heal, closing my eyes and praying for forgiveness for destroying the ship and ending her journey before its' time I did not see what happened. Callopias was absorbed into a thick black mist; his body and his energies, he looked as though he wanted to scream, but could not, as I said though I didn't see this.

"So; Callopias has failed." A dark ancient voice remarked almost casually; my eyes snapped open, but there was no one there. "And Serenity has chosen to renounce me, how… Unforeseen." He added; his voice was so filled with darkness and the taint of evil my very soul shuddered, _so this is what it must feel like to speak with pure evil.  
_"No matter; you and I shall face one another in time, go to your woman now and enjoy the remainder of this ships' pathetic trip in peace, you and I shall finally end this conflict upon Voyagers' return to the Alpha Quadrant." He finished before the presence vanished from my mind and I let out a sigh of relief; there was no way in Tartarus I was ready to face someone like him yet.

"Computer; end program." I called out managing to struggle to my feet; the room reverted to its' old look and I smiled as I deactivated the lightsaber and retrieved the broadsword. "At least you didn't blow up in my face… I wonder what Obi-Wan or Yoda might say at my skill with building a lightsaber having never even seen or read about one being built before… At least; not in great detail." I mused silently to myself as I left the holodeck and made my way back to my quarters.

* * *

Serena was waiting when I got back; beaten, but whole for most of my injuries had already vanished, she smiled a happy little smile and pulled me into a tight embrace. When she pushed me back to ask me a question; I placed a finger on her lips and ran my eyes up and down her body, denying the urges no longer, she actually blushed at my open lingering look.

"Will you respect me in the morning?" She wondered with a tiny smile.

"That depends; this won't involve some kind of blood letting will it?" I asked jokingly; she shook her head disbelievingly and began to lead me towards the bed.

"I want to know; this is your own conscious decision right?" She wondered nervous for some reason I couldn't understand.

"Hey; ever since I started looking like this I've had the misfortune to deny a lot of women, mainly because of my principles." I began with a tired sigh. "I guess I'm just tired of ignoring my own desires; besides, I deserve something for coming out of that kind of fight intact, you know it's the first time I've fought an actual fire and brimstone kind of demon." I admitted; she smiled as she turned back to face me and pulled me into a deep kiss, when we parted my head was spinning, for some reason kissing Goddesses was always more dangerous then mortals.

"Your first time in other ways as well." She teased coyly; I blushed at that, but decided to one up her and she let out a sudden gasp of surprise as two extra long fingers of mine slid up her uniform and tickled her breasts.

"Perhaps, but I bet I'm just full of surprises." I remarked in a deeply emotional voice; _God do I need this bad._

"Ooooooo." She moaned closing her eyes. "I wish the mortals I used to know had extra features like this." She remarked before we both lowered ourselves onto the bed and began to tear each others' clothes off.

To Be Concluded; **Next up the Epilogue, perhaps a little anti-climatic after a fight like that, but hey I didn't want to give you everything leading up to the end otherwise there'd be nothing to look forward too after a final scene like Al/Serenity. 'Mischievous Smile'**


	10. Epilogue Enter Parenthood

**Author's Notes:** No reviews? Strange, I would have thought that such an epic confrontation would have at least gotten someone's attention and then I'd see the reviews pouring in; alas it is not to be I suppose, ah well I made a promise to add this epilogue yesterday or today and so I shall only because the end is needed for everyone to be prepared for when we start up the next story. And so without further ado I introduce you to a new character; and prepare you for the ultimate adventure our hero will ever take... Parenthood.

* * *

"Their ion trail ends; directly ahead." Tuvok reported; it was roughly a day and a half since I vanquished Callopias and first made love to a woman and today of all days I was assigned the helm as my duty shift. It was an entirely new post for me; despite all my duty shifts previously, including engineering, Harry's science station or Tuvok's tactical this was my first chance ever to command this mighty vessels trajectory, the experience was quite riveting.

"I'm detecting another vessel; bearing three zero mark one, one two." B'Elanna spoke up. "It's a Borg cube." She revealed; I fidgeted slightly in nervousness, but then I recalled a pertinent fact from my database.

"Collective." I whispered to myself the title of the episode we were now in; _you know I really should find some other way to refer to these things; maybe event would be a better, less demeaning description._

"Red alert." The Captain ordered. "Alter course to intercept; adjust shields to rotating frequencies." She continued; I followed her commands silently thrilled at the feeling of total control the helm afforded me, this post above all was the most prized among those crewmen with piloting skills. I was just fortunate I applied for this duty shift and was accepted after fifteen hours in the flight simulation program.

"Have they detected us?" The Captain asked rather generally.

"Unclear; the vessel is holding position." Tuvok returned; my eyes never once left their station, and yet I strongly wished to observe these events, but diligence was the key when afforded such responsibility.

"As soon as we're within sensor range start scanning for the away team." Janeway ordered by now assuming her seat. "On screen." She called out; I complied before B'Elanna could, eager to play as active a role as I could, it was just a good thing that more then one station on the bridge had access to the view screen controls.

"Their propulsion system is offline." Seven reported. "The damage is not that severe; the drones should have repaired it by now." She added in clear confusion.

"Lucky for us that they didn't or we'd never have caught up with them." Janeway remarked seriously. "Any sign of our people." She inquired.

"Not yet." B'Elanna informed; then the ship began to shake as the cube opened fire.

"They are targeting our warp core; shields are holding." Tuvok informed in turn; I began to plot out evasive maneuvers, but didn't execute any waiting until the Captain gave the word.

"Return fire; aim for their weapons array." She ordered Tuvok; I continued to wait patiently, maintaining an optimum course for targeting.

"Now they're going after our impulse engines." B'Elanna informed as the ship shook again; still I waited, mostly because I was confident in the knowledge that they posed no significant threat. "That one was meant for our sensors; they can't seem to make up their minds." She added after the next volley.

"Their attack strategy is erratic, inefficient." Seven observed the curiosity not once leaving her tone.

"And finished." Tuvok interjected. "We've disabled their weapons." He reported.

"That was too easy." B'Elanna stated; eliciting a snort from me, if she was worried about the ease of our victory she needed a better understanding of the Borg in general.

"Maybe they're in worse shape then we thought." The Captain remarked.

"I'm picking up non-Borg life signs." Tuvok reported. "One of them is definitely Talaxian; it looks as though they haven't been assimilated yet." He elaborated.

"Try to get a transporter lock." Janeway ordered; I sighed softly, with the fight over all I had to do now was maintain position, and that could get boring real fast.

"Their shields are interfering." B'Elanna softly complained her tone betraying no hint of frustration; she was a professional after all, but she and Tom were close these days, so I knew she must have been worried for him.

"Target their shield generator and fire." The Captain ordered.

"Captain; I believe I can explain the unusual behavior of these Borg." Seven spoke up. "There should be thousands of drones manning the vessel, but I'm picking up only five signatures." She revealed.

"For a ship that size; no wonder it was so easy." I remarked with a smirk.

"Unless you have something constructive to add; refrain from interrupting me Ensign." Seven shot back taking me a little by surprise.

"Well excuse me oh great and powerful one." I mocked; before she could offer a rebuttal the com line crackled to life.

"We are the Borg; you will be assimilated, resistance is futile." The usual Borg spiel caused an involuntary shudder down my spine; the last time I'd heard this particular voice of the collective had been the day of my assimilation.

"It doesn't sound like they've lost their confidence." B'Elanna remarked eliciting a grin; if only they knew what I knew.

"Their shield generators are too deep inside the vessel; our weapons can't reach them." Tuvok informed.

"Open a channel." Janeway ordered. "Borg vessel; this is the Starship Voyager, you're holding our crewmen. We're willing to cease firing if you return them." She stated confidently.

"Negotiation is irrelevant; you will be assimilated." They returned; I shook my head.

"Been there, done that." I muttered ignoring any looks shot my way.

"Not today and not by you." The Captain countered ignoring my breach in protocol. "Agree or I'll resume firing." She demanded.

"They are scanning us." Tuvok alerted.

"Five drones probably can't adapt fast enough to our weapons." I spoke up musingly.

"Even with only five drones there is still unity." Seven countered; I sighed, unity was highly overrated in my humble opinion.

"We will return your crewmembers; in exchange for specific technology." They returned.

"Talk about unusual behavior." B'Elanna commented. "The Borg negotiating.

"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it." I murmured aside so only the chief-engineer could hear.

"What technology?" The Captain inquired; I scanned my controls briefly before resuming my study of the cube, somewhere on that vessel were six neo-natal drones. Five of whom would become individuals once more, but what was the true fate of the infant girl we would rescue; and why did a part of me strangely fear the answer?

"Your navigational deflector; disengage it from your secondary hull." They demanded; I couldn't help, but think of them only as they right now.

"Mute audio." The Captain ordered.

"If we surrender our deflector; we'll be dead in space, we won't be able to go to warp." Tuvok observed.

"What would they want with it?" Janeway wondered.

"Oh; I don't know it might make a pretty rad Frisbee." I quipped once again ignoring the pointed glares sent my way; although this time I did offer an apology. "Sorry; force of habit."

"When their communications array was damaged it severed their link with the Collective; they intend to adapt our deflector to regain it." Seven informed successfully ignoring my tasteless remark.

"Who'd want that?" I grumbled; B'Elanna silently inclined her head my way to show she happened to agree with my sentiment.

"And call for reinforcements." The Captain surmised. "That's the last thing we need." She stated; they were mostly pretty good at ignoring my sudden outbursts, I smirked, it was really quite amazing how efficient they were when sticking to scripted dialogue. Almost like actors in their own rights, but then again I supposed it was all part of Starfleet training or something.

"We'll have to stall them until we can find another way out of this." She finally decided; the loud beep of the com lines being re-established grated on my over-sensitive audios. "I'll consider the exchange, but first I want to be certain my crewmen are unarmed and alive." She informed.

"You have scanned our vessel." They returned.

"Our scans were inconclusive." She countered; ah the subtleties of negotiations, such a good thing I never wanted to go into politics. "We want to see them for ourselves." She demanded.

"You may transport one individual." They returned; amazing how the Borg all seemed to have the same voice when communicating with other ships, perhaps they took lessons from Darth Vader.

"Seven." The Captain called making her choice; I sat back and relaxed, so much tension, good thing my duty shift was about to end. I had a few more plans I wanted to try out in preparation for the oncoming Borg assault, and I still had to finish that report for the Captain concerning Callopias.

"Hmmm; I wonder what Serena is doing." I mused softly smiling at the thought of another eight hours of unbridled passion. "Sure is a good thing we Technorganic Borg are blessed with great stamina." I whispered under my breath trying hard not to laugh aloud at my racy comment.

* * *

Q regarded the events playing out thoughtfully; he had not expected things to develop in such a fashion, and yet a part of him realized he should have expected as much when he freed the demons.

"Omnibus is a most troubling pawn." He remarked to his silently observing companion. "However; he has provided your chosen with his first true demonic encounter." He added thoughtfully.

"He is still troubled by his assimilation; even if he has put it away, his feelings that is." She remarked; Q nodded.

"This is why I'm manipulating him; of course he isn't aware of it, give him something… Or rather someone; to help him get over it." He returned; Alain Desrochers' mistress smiled softly, though Q was unaware of it since she was in her own reality.

"He is destined to receive a true gift; he will have a family once destiny has played out." She revealed knowingly.

"Naturally; however I felt he could use a head start." Q returned with a mischievous smile. "Besides I do believe fatherhood suits the young man." He added.

"Most definitely." She returned with a deep caring expression; the Borg child would definitely be a wonderful addition to his family, she of course could see the future and smiled at the thought of her chosen accepting such a responsibility. "Oh yes; fatherhood shall indeed suit him." She whispered happily and proudly and full of great love for her child.

* * *

I entered sickbay after the children were rescued from the cube; it had taken me longer then I thought to finish the report for the Captain concerning Callopias, so I hadn't had the opportunity to seek out Serena. Sickbay was currently empty; the Doc was even now informing Seven as to the successful operation concerning the infant; a success that could very well become dismal failure, I approached the babe, she lay sleeping in her crib-like biobed.  
A strange feeling washed over me as I regarded the child; she seemed so helpless lying there, and my heart instantly leapt out for her. What would happen? Was she going to be alright? Did Voyager find her family off camera and return her? Or was it more sinister then that and would she wind up dieing here? Reaching out hesitantly I placed a hand upon her tiny brow and gently stroked the tiny bit of fuzz that was starting to show now that she was free of the maturation chamber.

"Hello Ensign." The Doctor suddenly spoke up startling me; I'd been so lost looking in on the infant I hadn't heard his return.

"Does she have a name?" I wondered speaking softly so as not to upset her.

"We couldn't find one." He admitted; I could sense he was studying me and I glanced over to find him smiling. "Perhaps you should care for her; I don't think Seven is ready for handling a baby." He admitted with a tiny grin; I smiled gratefully at his vote of confidence, suddenly the baby began to cry and the equipment monitoring her began to alarm dangerously.

"No." I whispered even as the Doctor rushed to her side; he pulled out his tricorder and tried to find the problem.

"I don't understand; she shouldn't be experiencing any problems." He remarked; I watched him frantically working, he seemed to be capable, but for some reason I was beginning to get that sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. Like somebody who'd just gotten punched in the gut; it was disturbing, and the tiny rasping breaths the baby was taking tore at my very heartstrings.

"What's wrong?" I demanded feeling lost for some reason I could not understand; his answer made my blood run cold with fear.

"She's reacting negatively to the removal of her implants; I thought I'd corrected the problem, but something seems to have resurfaced." He replied; suddenly it became very quiet, the baby had stopped breathing. "No; I can not lose this patient." He exclaimed taking me by surprise; frantically he tried injecting her with a hypospray, but nothing changed and the flat line tone continued. It sounded a death knell and I knew that no matter what; the Doctor could not save the infant, nothing could outside of one very ugly possibility.

"Doctor." I began moving closer. "She's not going to return unless you let me try something." I spoke softly, fearfully; I did not ever want to have to use those damn tendrils for what they were intended, but an innocent's life was on the line.

"You can't." He shot back instinctively knowing what I had planned. "Not without the Captain's permission." He added.

"But…" I began to protest; the longer we stood arguing the greater the chances of her death proving final grew.

"It's a matter of ethics Ensign; if I allowed you to… Well, what kind of person would I be then; do you recall what happened with Crell Moset?" He asked; I nodded remembering the problems the Doctor had already faced with morality, but once again I knew, emphatically that this one time, I just couldn't stand by on the sidelines and watch. Or partially interact in this situation; it was time to take that step, the one that led down the path of risks and repercussions.

"I CAN NOT LET HER DIE!" I found myself screaming directly in his face; I closed my eyes at the look of shook on his face and quickly calmed myself. "Whatever consequences I must face, I can not stand idly by and let this innocent slip away; not when I have it within my power to save her." I stated calmer now; the Doctor stood back and actually let me closer, he indicated the child.

"Whatever you're going to do, do it now before it's too late." He stated; I nodded slightly and raised my wrist, the tendrils emerged faster then I thought possible, as if some part of them were hungry for the taste of true assimilation. Searing pain spread through my entire body as nanoprobes were forced out of me and into the child; her chest rose again slowly and a ragged gasp of breath occurred, intense pain flared within my head and I saw a blinding flash of light internally before collapsing to the floor unconscious.

* * *

The Doctor watched as the baby waved its' tiny fist and began to wail in pain; he wanted to do something, but he was riveted to the spot unable to move. He watched in silent fascination as the infant literally demolecularized right in front of him; it was a sight made all the more horrifying by the simple fact that this was not a transporter effect.  
New awareness came to her as she began to experience sensations so alien that she could barely understand at first; her body was rebuilt, using her genetic makeup to create an older more efficient version of her species' body-type, the nanoprobes didn't require much. Instead of maturing her to full adulthood they stopped when they reached an acceptable physical age; that of eight, since she was too big now for the biobed she fell to the floor and the Doctor quickly moved around to continue to monitor this process realizing he'd never get another chance. She appeared mostly human-like; though it was clear that her species had evolved somewhere down the line from some class of feline, her hair had grown considerably longer revealing it to be aquamarine in color. Two tiny blue horns jutted out of her head a few inches above the forehead; near the tip of her crown, her skin tone was akin to a humans, but slightly lighter then the more common Caucasian; a tad creamy and almost smoother.  
A short tail of about three feet in length uncurled from slightly above her posterior; connecting to the tail-bone on the spinal column, it too was aquamarine in color covered with a light fur. The Doctor could see the tips of her ears slightly pointed and covered with fur as they twitched; and he noted that the girls' feet were smaller then most human children of her age with only four toes on each foot, which made him question how her species could have evolved five fingered hands. The ankles had some fur surrounding them and the souls of the feet held padding; exactly like a cats, the Doctor had a feeling finding appropriate shoes might be hard. Finally the process appeared complete; the little girl opened her eyes slowly and she turned her gaze all about the room in wonder.  
He noted that they were exactly like a cats in appearance with a deep golden color; finally her eyes fell upon the man that had saved her from certain death, cautiously she approached him moving on all fours. She reached out a tentative hand and brushed his cheek studying him; he let out a soft moan and began to stir. She darted back at the sudden activity and waited silently; the Doctor was so enthralled by the child's actions, and mystified by her species in general that he couldn't do much else.  
Al opened his eyes and shook his head; still in obvious pain, something that shouldn't be registering for a simple assimilation, but the Doc knew he was a hybrid and so his nanoprobes might react differently. The child broke into a wide smile revealing tiny sharp pointed teeth and Al looked into her eyes and recoiled in surprise, he had obviously not been expecting this.

"_Hello Daddy._" She greeted speaking in perfect English; Al took another good look at her, completely lost in a daze.

"_Oh boy._" He returned though his lips never moved; somehow he had a feeling life was going to change a lot around here.

To Be Continued

Epilogue

The Admiral sighed as he regarded the data pad once again; he wasn't fully active in Starfleet any more, but some of the younger men and women over at Starfleet Medical kept sending him special cases they thought he might be interested in. He'd read this report three times already and he still couldn't figure out exactly why they thought it might interest him, but he was intrigued; the damn Holographic Doctor however certainly had a flair for the dramatic in his words on occasion… It irked the Admiral because it reminded him a little of himself; and he knew that damned Vulcan would clearly make some foolish comment at this. Still; this was a monumental development and highly unprecedented even in the time of his own former Captain he'd never encountered such powers, at least not those in a natural Earth man or woman… Well there had been that one incident, but that was nothing compared to this.

"I think it's time to stretch my legs; I may be pushing a hundred and ten plus, but that doesn't mean I can't get some exercise." He remarked to himself in his crotchety old tone of voice. "And there might be something the engineer will see that I haven't; perhaps once this man arrives here, providin' I'm still alive and kickin' at the time I may just see about having a word with the young man." He added before reaching for his cane; something he loathed above all else, even that damned Vulcan and proceeded to leave his home office in search of the head of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. The contents of the data pad still fresh in his mind; he was unaware that a certain individual had taken an interest in him, but had he known he probably wouldn't have cared one way or the other, his mind still puzzled over the words…

_Chief Medical Officers Logs  
__Supplemental_

_In lieu of Starfleet Commands request on subject Alain Desrochers I have personally compiled a complete and detailed report concerning the strange and almost super natural qualities of what I have personally classified as Human/Borg Hybrid: Technorganic or Biomechanical whichever you prefer._

_In order to understand certain developments; I should remind you that Ensign Desrochers is a human male from an unknown alternate reality, transported here for unknown and often highly dangerous training exercises executed by the being known colorfully as Q.  
__At some point prior to Stardate 51252.3 the Borg queen was made aware of this unique individuals presence aboard Voyager and desired to assimilate him to, according to Al, spread her perfection through the Omniverse, whatever that term means, and create the perfect mate. Due to unknown reasons the assimilation process was not commonly executed, as we understand it a Drone must insert the Nanoprobes via what Al called their assimilation tendrils. 'Do we even have a name for them?' Anyway back to the matter at hand, according to Al his assimilation was out of the ordinary; for more than just the fact that a Drone did not use said tendrils. During the assimilation process he reports that the Nanoprobes mutated somehow, reconfiguring their own program matrix after coming in contact with his blood stream. They then proceeded to literally break him down on a sub-atomic level reconstructing him to their newly developed needs. __Such a thing is not only unheard of, but highly inconceivable if only I could have witnessed this process first hand; it might help me better understand and explain certain hyper awareness's the subject now demonstrates.  
__We have both performed numerous tests together under close observational and strict conditional practices and; have concluded that not only are his Borg implants completely integrated with his organic cells to such a degree that assimilation, in this instance is irreversible. But he is apparently also incapable of death, perhaps I'm being far too generous, what I mean to say is; Ensign Desrochers has, without my consent utilized the holodecks with their safeties deactivated to test his limitations and come to the undeniable conclusion that he is now totally incapable of dieing by any unnatural causes as well as most known natural genetic causes of death._

_His ageing process has been rendered practically negligible with no noticeable physical deviations from readings I took prior to the assimilation, which means; although the subject in question resembles a healthy young man of Twenty-One his biological age could actually be conceivably further along in the natural ageing cycle of a human male. 'He has dubbed this phenomenon the Wolverine Syndrome, something I completely fail to comprehend; he says it has something to do with a Marvel comic, whatever that is. I'm a doctor not a twentieth century history buff.'  
__He has exhibited excessive higher reasoning protocols having gone so far as to be capable of enhancing several ships' systems beyond their normal parameters, something even our Chief Engineer has praised him for. He has also created a unique technological suit of armor he has dubbed Trans-Tech armor, which appears to be some form of metallic thread; I don't understand the sciences behind it really he only mentioned it once in brief and quite by accident I assure you. As well he has been working on creating his own personal Medical Tricorder, which when fully finished appears to be able to perform all of the functions the medical tools used by Starfleet can in one fully compacted form. 'This is rather useful considering the amount of physical injuries he puts himself through with those often times dangerous and strange Holodeck programs.' As well as perfecting an alternate form of Regeneration technology housed in a perfectly ordinary looking two-person bed. 'I hear he had it commissioned because Seven was growing disturbed with his presence in the Alcoves, something about nightmares and talking in his sleep.' __Subject possesses his own assimilation tendrils, like all Borg drones, however he has made them an extension of himself; being capable of manipulating these surprisingly long tendrils, I personally have witnessed them assume lengths up to thirty-five feet when needed. He can also use them to interface with ships systems and augment key systems to his needs when necessary rather like a living battery, understandably the Captain is very annoyed with this since he's been using these abilities without her consent._

_Now we come to a most complicated conundrum that has confounded us greatly; even he does not comprehend how his unique gifts were created considering no other Borg has ever exhibited similar abilities. __The Nanoprobes have afforded him a series of extrasensory abilities, the collected microscopic machines that are housed in his arms act as high powered absorbers, capable of drawing all forms of energy into the subject, which can serve to recharge his depleting energy reserves or be redirected through his fingertips as electrical bursts for defensive purposes. Or, here's the surprising part, they can be perfectly manipulated to generate three dimensional color images, photographic holograms so realistic you'd think they could walk and talk. This skill is highly draining however on his power reserves and very difficult to control; according to the Ensign at any rate, he does not use it very often and only discovered it through accidental means.  
__He also exhibits the ability to manipulate his very gravitational nature, or to be more precise, he is as he colorfully put it; a living gravitational pole. B'Elanna Torres, our chief engineer, has expressed numerous complaints concerning this ability because he uses it more often than not to forcibly open the doors before he reaches their sensors. He's broken around eight pairs now using this ability, at least according to my calculations, ah where were we now? Oh of course, this ability also enables him to defy and manipulate his very center of gravity for extended periods of time; I personally witnessed him hovering above the floor in a meditative pose just last night._

_Oh yes; his healing capabilities, unlike true Borg he doesn't adapt, instead his body will more often than not allow him to suffer the wounds if he is ill prepared to avoid them. Seeing someone with five gaping wounds in his abdomen even makes my holomatrix feel ill. He suspects the one called Q who is mostly responsible for his being taken by the Borg; wanted this to help keep him on his toes and thus interceded during the assimilation process, I think he carries this whole honorable warrior nonsense a tad to far, he's worse than a Klingon at times. On a related note, the Nanoprobes themselves seem to regulate the healing process at variable intervals; choosing which wounds to heal faster than others in an apparently random manner. He also has quite a knack for manipulating his vocal processors to mimic anyone's voice, he's been entertaining young Naomi Wildman with this talent re-enacting something he calls The Transformers… I have no idea what that is, some old Earth television program according to Tom.  
__That about sums it up, I shouldn't be too concerned about his modus operandi, not only has he exhibited numerous chivalrous personality traits, but he has personally risked his own life to save this ship and her crew on two separate occasions; and I for one believe he's too rooted in his moral ideals to turn against us or start creating secret personal programs imbedded into the computer banks… A second time._

The Admiral shook his head; he wasn't an expert on the Borg, in point of fact he'd never even contacted them or this Q fellow. So why did they pass it on to him? He still couldn't figure it out; oh well, he was certain that it would only be a matter of time especially if he got that help from his old friend, who didn't look nearly so old.

"Damn Scotsman; trust the Captain to find a way to cheat the ageing process with those blasted unnatural devices, is it any wonder I still can't stand using those confounded Transporters." He muttered to himself before boarding the mass transit shuttle heading for Starfleet Headquarters, a few other passengers recognized him; yet he paid them no mind. He never did like the idolization or hero worship some of his peers had enjoyed since being promoted, a shame some of them had families to carry on the legacy. Oh well; maybe he could still find a lovely young thing, then again he wasn't much of a family man and he was certainly too old to be thinking about such things… Truth be told though; he wished he could share this with his former Captain, may he rest in peace, or hell even that damned Vulcan, anything was better then listing to that pompous, arrogant, quick tempered Scott.  
Had he bothered to look up he might have seen one of the younger looking women smiling at him; he also might have recognized her from the unusual report he'd received several years back or so detailing the existence of a Q offspring who'd believed she was human, but he failed to even bother paying such attention, his mind was far too wrapped up in puzzling out the reason for his receiving that report, which had to be months old by now… The young woman smiled on; she'd been asked to get involved by her former mentor Q and she had vowed to keep an eye on the old codger, now she saw why, and she felt proud. Q was letting her in on the little secret he'd been keeping from the rest of the continuum; now all she had to do was make sure he stayed interested and alive for when the young man reached the Alpha Quadrant, a task she was more than capable of.

To Be Continued in Star Trek Voyager: War Against the Collective… **Next Time on Star Trek Voyager; get ready for a brilliant array of tactical prowess as Alain Desrochers unleashes the full fury of his Holographic Decepticons upon the Borg Collective, thrill at the young man's entrance into Fatherhood as he learns to cope with dealing with raising a young girl and marvel at the exploits of our hero as Voyager grows dangerously close to returning home to the Alpha Quadrant, and... Omnibus...**


	11. Chapter 11 Comprehensive Timeline

**Chrysalis Timeline**

**Earth 929 Year 1992 April 13TH;** Alain Desrochers dates Jennifer McMahon for the first time, Unicron secretly employs an agent of Cobra-La to leave the book detailing Shadow Magic in Jennifers' school locker setting events in motion to ensure the arrival of Earth Primes' Alain Desrochers in the year 2003. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 1._

**Earth 929 Year 1994 May 27TH; **Jerrica Benton, the Holograms, their Associates, The Misfits and their Associates are mistakenly removed from Earth 929 by Saturnyne the Omniversal Majestrix due to outside interference from Merlyn. Roma chooses to use them for their mission to Earth 1302 in place of the Earth 656 counterparts intended to be used thus granting the assembled cast knowledge of the Omniverse for their future friendships surrounding a young man they currently have no knowledge on.  
Roughly five months later possibly; Unicron ensures that Kang the Conqueror will mistakenly apprehend all those living in Starlight Mansion thus ensuring that the Starlight Girls will also be aware of the Omniverse, the reason for this is still uncertain, but Primus has speculated that the Dark God wished to manipulate Alain's future ties with the Starlight Girls to unspecific ends. _Source Flashback: Crisis on Earth 929 Final Chaos and Unwritten Prelude to Crisis: Kang & The Starlight Girls._

**Earth Prime Year 1995 September 6TH; **Reanne McMahon previous Chosen of God loses the full power of her bloodline and begins to pay great attention to her daughters' boyfriends seeking the next Chosen. _Source: Off-Screen Event Never Written._

**Earth 929 Year 1997 August 10TH; **Jennifer and Alain finally become Talia and Darkholme beginning the process of harvesting Chaos energies in small amounts so as not to be noticed by Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange, several classmates of the duo most notably Christine Delisle, Candace Berard, Pamela Noel and Nicole Desroches (No relation) disappear. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 2._

**Starlight Citadel Timeline Uncertain; **Roma at last discerns the presence of total Chaos brewing on Earth 929 and sends Spider-Girl of Earth 107 to ferret out the source of the growing Chaotic forces threatening to destabilize the Omniversal balance. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 2 and 3._

**Earth Prime Year 2000 June 20TH; **Alain Desrochers Graduates High School and is faced with a lonely future as he knows nothing of what is expected of him, Reanne begins to despair as the Demons collect more souls to break the Gates of Hell open wide. _Source: Off-Screen Event Never Written._

**Earth 929 Year 2002 July 4TH; **Spider-Girl is enslaved by Shadow King under orders of Darkholme, Wheeljack begins plans to build the Infinity Engine, unseen by all Unicron is pleased at the progress of his pawns. Talia briefly faces the Ghost Rider revealing her presence and her plans indirectly to Mephistopheles, Blade the Vampire Hunter encounters Darkholme during a raid on a nest, and a Pocket Dimension is accidentally destroyed resulting in the unleashing of the Shadow Warg from their long ago banishment, Talia begins to tame them as pets. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 4 and 5 and 6._

**Earth Prime Year 2003 September 13TH Give or Take; **Alain telephones Jennifer; God ensures the call will be disappointing; the Omniverse becomes common knowledge to Alain Albert-Joseph Desrochers. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part One._

**Starlight Citadel Timeline Uncertain; **Roma enlists the aid of Arachnia AKA Gwen Stacy from Earth 3062; the choice of heroes reflecting ties to Spider-Man is due to manipulations in the Starlight Citadels' systems by Merlyn, Roma's father. Reasons unknown. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue 6 Epilogue._

**Earth Designation Unrevealed Timeline Unspecified; **Alain Desrochers encounters Xena forcibly, God causes amnesia to ensure her champion shall take his training seriously, Unicron begins actively observing events from afar as his manipulations begin to take hold of the human.  
Taking the name Alumni; Alain journeys with the Warrior Princess and the Battling Bard and begins learning the proper use of the sword, he begins to bulk up and tone his body eliminating the fat. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part One._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 January 3RD; **Arachnia is captured by Talia and Darkholme becoming a sexual plaything for the duo replacing the most likely deceased former missing classmates; Wheeljack perfects the Infinity Engine and begins testing, Time Travelers from a future date and time inadvertently arrive in undocumented encounter between the Fantastic Four and a team claiming to be Salvation, they are led by a woman of unspecified origins and trick Johnny Storm Alias The Human Torch into returning with them to the future. _Source: Unwritten Salvation Issue Numbers Unknown; The Human Torch Saga and Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 7._

**Abbreviation Xena's Earth Timeline Still Unspecified; **Ares and Hera take a vested interest in Alumni; Ares uses a special poison to make communication possible, due to fragmented memories Alumni continues to train uncertain of his origins, but needing the skills to survive Hera convinces Hercules that Alumni is a dangerous threat; other players also become involved as the Heroes are gathered to protect the young man and facilitate his training all engineered by Zeus of course. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part One._

**Coruscant 177 Roughly 15 000 Years before the Foundation of the First Galactic Republic; **Jedi Knight Sarill Contrelle journeying to the planet Mustafar as part of her Jedi Trials is reborn upon ascending to the rank of Jedi Master, an unknown female party giving the name Quinlee is responsible for her newfound immortality, the Force reveals all to Master Sarill. _Source: Unwritten Star Wars Tales of the Jedi Order Story._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 February 23RD; **Techrat is approached by Predacon warrior Waspinator in disguise; Darkholme begins capturing his villainous pawns in preparation of the big push, Mephistopheles appears to the current Ghost Rider warning of dire portent and enlists his services to claim the Eye of Agamotto, the attempt fails though it does force Stephen Strange off of Earth 929 for the remainder of the year leaving a doppelganger under the control of Mephistopheles in his place. _Source: Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929 Ghost Rider Prelude to Crisis and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929 Chronicles of Waspinator the Twenty-First Century._

**Xena's Earth Timeline Still Unspecified; **Alumni spends time in Athens undergoing intense physical training; Autolycus gets him in trouble with a tribe of Centaurs, but Xena manages to get him out. Unicron is well pleased at the progress of Alumni; fully aware what is to come he begins preparations to start the human on his path to the second unseen Destiny linking Alain to Cybertron forevermore, Past, Present and Future. _Source: Unwritten Tales of Suspense Issue Number 0 Alumni & Autolycus Vs. The Centaurs._

**Coruscant 177 18 Years before Star Wars The Phantom Menace; **Master Contrelle emerges from the planet Mustafar and engages battle with a Sith Lord by the name of Darth Sidious on the planet of Naboo, her attempt to prevent the fall of the Jedi Order fails, she flees into hiding and awaits the time of the Clone Wars vanishing seemingly from existence on the planet Dagobah. _Source: Unwritten Tales of Suspense Issue Number 1 Jedi Vs. Sith._

**Xena's Earth Timeline Still Unspecified; **Alumni journeys with Xena and experiences numerous adventures alongside his two mentors; during the Hind incident Alumni and Velasca are both kidnapped by Tarantulas acting under orders from Unicron, Unicron implants the spark that will become Tarantulas 929 within the flesh body of Alumni, forcibly usurping the young mans' true destiny and sub-planting it with that of a more favorable and necessary fate. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part Two and Prologue to Twisted._

**Faerûn 09 Timeline Uncertain; **Alumni, Velasca and a misplaced Kender spirit by the name of Tasslehoff Burrfoot fail in their quest to lay claim to the Dark Matrix from Cybertron 118 from the hands of the Drow of Menzoberranzan. Alumni's altered personality is forgotten and he is returned to Xena's Earth dismissing his stray memories as a trick of the Gods; within the spark of Tarantulas 929 begins to plot recapturing the flesh form of Alumni to continue his service to a being he has forgotten, obviously Unicron. _Source: Twisted._

**Earth Prime Hell Dimension; **Lucifer begins to prepare the power to breach Hells' Gates and conquer humanity along with the Earth; Time on Earth is no longer in motion however Time in Hell continues to beat faster towards the fated release of all Demonkin, The Secretary chooses to leave these scenes of darkness unseen to those regarding the chronicled history of Alain Albert-Joseph Desrochers of Earth Prime. _Source: Off-Screen Event Never Written._

**Xena's Earth Timeline Still Unspecified; **Alumni travels with Xena further the Ambrosia stolen from Callisto still hidden; he encounters Diana the Pagan Goddess and faces a tribe of Uruk-Hai; led by Damocles, the origins of the Uruk are unknown, Alain becomes Justice for the first time. Suffering a mortal wound he ingests the Ambrosia; the cultivating Spark of Tarantulas 929 uses this chance to resume control of the body assuming Godhood and proclaiming himself God of Chaos, due to fragmented memories Alumni does not recall anything of his mission to Faerûn. Instead he proceeds to wipe out whole villages of innocent souls while Xena, Gabrielle, Iolaus, Hercules and Joxer meet Toley one of Gods special guides; believing Alain's soul to have fragmented into two separate souls due to his amnesia and the fact that Unicron has hidden his machinations thoroughly from the eyes of God and Primus Toley sends his friends into his astral plane to save Alumni/Alain from death.  
In the end Tarantulas 929 is forcibly rejected from Alain's body taking on briefly a corporeal flesh form that is swiftly terminated by Toley's mate; thus Alain is saved and begins to learn more about his First Destiny. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part Two and Xena Warrior Princess & Hercules The Legendary Journeys; God of Chaos._

**Earth 929 Timeframe Unclear; **Unicron reclaims the spark that was Alumni who still has no recollection of the events surrounding its' origins; in fact it still believes itself to be a mortal soul and possesses a human appearance. Agreeing to Unicrons' false assurances Alumni the Spark is reformatted completely and finally turned into the Cybertronian Life Form destined to be; Tarantulas 929, though Tarantulas's memories have been altered so that all vestiges of his past life as a human are erased he completely understands that he has Unique Origins from those of Cybertronian Descent. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess & Hercules The Legendary Journeys; God of Chaos Epilogue._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate Possibly 49504.3; **Having completed his training on Xena's Earth Alain is sent to the 24TH century and Q; first he must understand the nuances of the technology and survive the harsh wilds of the Delta Quadrant aboard the Starship Voyager, friendships are forged with Megan and Jenny Delaney and Ensign Samantha Wildman. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; Learning Curve; A New Frontier._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 March 15TH; **Darkholme and Talia continue unseen manipulations; Wheeljack and Optimus Prime place the Infinity Engine under SHIELD protection in secret and use deception and subterfuge to prevent the Decepticons from initially discovering the engines' absence, Cobra forces resurrect Serpentor from his death-like stasis and events begin to interconnect due to the presence of the Chaos Bringer. The Power Infinity Gem becomes the property of Reed Richards for a brief time, with it he discovers the Autobots' Infinity Engine has ties to the Infinity Gems though neither seems logically possible considering the origins of the Gems and Engine. _Source: The Transformers Issue Number 85 To Harness Infinity and Crisis on Earth 929 Reed Richards; Prelude to War._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate 50384.2; **Alain meets Q for the first time; he begins to find his place on Voyager, Q takes on a new identity as Hunis the Trickster and creates the belief in the Draconian race that Al is Sithicus the Destroyer. The Borg become aware of Al's presence on Voyager during the Species 8472 incident and begin preparations for assimilation. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; Learning Curve; A New Frontier and Possibly Star Trek Voyager; Assimilation; Enemy at the Gates._

**Coruscant 177 Approximately 13-15 Years After Events of A New Hope; **Sensing the arrival of Alain is imminent Master Contrelle leaves Mustafar and Discovers Callista on the planet Naboo where she battled Sidious all those long years ago, she begins to re-open the woman fully in the Force. _Source: Unwritten Tales of Suspense Issue 2 Tales of the Jedi._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate Approximately 51268.4; **The Borg capture Alain and forcibly assimilate him, the process goes awry through unseen developments; some such as Alain himself believe that Q influenced the Assimilation process and as usual the Omnipotent One decides not to correct that assumption taking perverse pleasure in the blame. In truth; due to the fact that the Spider Drone Tarantulas forcibly inserted into Alain back during the whole Twisted affair the Nanoprobes themselves become conflicted as two separate and alien sets of programming intersect and combine on a sub-molecular level re-writing the young human as Unicron intended into a Technorganic Life Form of unique abilities though still possessing the characteristics of the Borg and not the Cybertronians.  
After escaping Alain and the Voyager crew must come to grips with what has happened to him; life becomes further complicated when the Draconians arrive forcing Al to act and tap once again into the powers of Justice reawakening his memories of said power.  
**Stardate 52081.2; **Q frees Omnibus, Callopias and Serenity from incarceration; his Padawan will soon encounter a real Demon and begin to put the pieces of the puzzle that is his life together. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; Assimilation; Enemy at the Gates._ **Author's Notes: So as not to confuse you I will pause here to explain further the entire Assimilation Process I have recently re-created and re-envisioned to further draw ties between Alain and Cybertron. As you have already read Alain as Alumni encountered the Tarantulas of a different reality in Twisted and in order for Alumni to control Velasca this Tarantulas placed a Spider Drone within both of them. At the end of said story Velasca puked up the Spider Drone in a liquid state as she was forcibly bound to the Kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot, but the fate of Alain's Spider Drone was never revealed… This got the Wheels in my head to turning; at one point I had decided that Q really had mucked around with the Assimilation creating the other powers and as you can see whenever we bring that up in the main body of work Q and even his son q constantly play up this fact though in truth Q being a well known master of lies never actually did anything except to awaken the latent Mutant Gene in Alain a dormant Gene that all Earth Prime residents possess unknowingly.  
****The other power, powers I should say; originate from the Assimilation of the Spider Drone; Alain's ability to manipulate and created hard light holograms for brief moments in time is a remnant of the Spider Drones' own onboard holographic communications system, the ability to harness Gravity and to a lesser though extremely finite extent the Magnetic Spectrum is a remnant of the Spider Drones' repulsor field generator, which allows certain advanced Spider Drones the ability to levitate and fly defying gravity as it were, as well as the Spider Drone's magnetic grapplers, which Tarantulas has used in the past and is my interpretation of the little claw-like appendages sometimes seen in the Beast Wars cartoon, I mean they can pick up the pieces of Tarantulas when he gets' blown to smithereens, but some of those pieces looked a little awkward and even impossible to grasp, so I figured the claws must have added magnetic grapplers to facilitate picking up awkward, larger or even smaller pieces. This also explains why Alain's and Amy's Nanoprobes resemble eight-legged arachnids and possess a sort of semi-consciousness of their own at times; since the Spider Drones are Tarantulas' version of Smart Tools or AI units, which assist him in his laboratory experiments and the like it would make sense that at times they would assume control of certain bodily functions for unspecified purposes caused perhaps by mutated or aberrant behavioral programming as a result of the assimilation. The reason why I explain this all to you here dear reader is to facilitate the explanation and also I have no intention of revealing this truth to the characters in the story in any way shape or form; it's the Author's decision after all, so my original intentions now have an underlining perhaps sinister origin concerning the abilities of Technorganic Borg and also ties Alain to Cybertron just that little bit more… Now back to the matter at hand.**

**Earth 929 Year 2003 May 27TH; **Darkholme celebrates his twenty-first birthday and enjoys the fruits of his labors, namely Jennifer and Gwen; Cobra sets in motion project B.A.T Upgrade and sets their sights on acquiring the SHIELD Helicarrier. On Cybertron the war escalates as both Autobot and Decepticon begin deep space exploration for both Energon sources to replenish depleted supplies and lost colonies hoping to bolster their ranks with Cybertronians who had grown tired with the war and left, but are now desperately needed. Ultra Magnus makes contact with the Junkions of planet Junk and discovers faint traces of Cybertronian signatures from distant planet Nebulos; the Silver Surfer returns to being Galactus' Herald when Nova (**Frankie Raye**) is incarcerated on the Shi'ar home world for aiding Thanos in slaughtering eighty billion Kree survivors.  
Unicron begins preparations for the creation of Cyclonus and Scourge; it is also theorized that at this time the Universe Conflict of Cybertron 1300 was first conceived and possibly executed. Johnny Storm; missing for Five months in the Future, or a possible Future Timeline is at last returned by a mysterious young teenager with feline inspired characteristics, he says nothing of what he saw or did or even why he was gone so long. _Source: Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929 Cobra; Prelude to Crisis and The Transformers Issue Number 89-90 Plight of the Junkions and The Silver Surfer Issues Numbered Undecided; Heralds of Galactus and Crisis on Earth 929 Johnny Storm; Prelude to Crisis._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate 52143.6; **Alain discovers both Serenity and Callopias roughly around this time, Serenity the Goddess attempts to seduce him, Callopias the Demon grows eager to kill him and events rapidly spiral out of control including an incident on the Holodeck until roughly Stardate 53049.2 when Al slays Callopias in combat and begins a torrid affair with Serenity. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; Forbidden Fruit._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 June 10TH; **Chaos has clouded Earth 929 from Roma's sight almost completely; aware she requires a new champion to prevent its' destruction she begins scouring the Omniverse for the perfect hero, preferably a Counterpart to Alain Desrochers 929. Meanwhile Talia at last is fully eclipsed by Unicrons' influence as he takes a personal hand in the events he is manipulating and Megatron finally deduces that Prime has hidden the Infinity Engine amongst the humans of SHIELD. In the small kingdom of Wakanda home to Africa's premier super hero the Black Panther Waspinator, the Predacon from a future time joins forces with T-Challa, Ghost Rider and a repentant Juggernaut to prevent T-Challa's enemies from unearthing remains of the Maximal Transwarp Exploration Craft Axalon and using them against the African heroes kingdom; time seems almost to stand still as though awaiting the coming of Alain Prime. _Source: Unwritten The Transformers Issues Numbered 92-94 (Possibly) Infinity is a Long Time Coming and Chronicles of Waspinator; Waspinator & The Secret Defenders._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate Unknown; **After several months possibly a year of recuperation following the battle with Callopias, Alain Desrochers meets Amy and winds up adopting her via assimilation to save her life; Amy Chelerise Desrochers changes Al's entire outlook on life. Revealing his secretly crafted Holo-Cons; sentient holographic Decepticons, Al and Voyager repel attacks by the Borg and experience a great many adventures.

**Stardate Approximately 54274.7; **Al is visited by Warren Meers of Earth Hellmouth 400 reminding him that the events of Shattered is rapidly approaching; Al takes Amy to Eternia and is in turn adopted by her family, it is believed by Historians of Al and those around him that Serenity was impregnated close to this Stardate as well. Once returned to Voyager events continue on until fated Stardate 549703.4 when Admiral Janeway of one possible future arrives and leads her younger self into the destined event resulting in Voyager at last coming home to the Alpha Quadrant. Transporting over to the Enterprise Alain gets' his house in order and faces Omnibus at last; the Demon Overlord almost kills him, but he succeeds in destroying the Demons' physical form. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; War Against the Collective and Star Trek The Next Generation; Home and Heartache._

**Starlight Citadel Time Unspecified; **Roma recruits Alain to aid in ending the Crisis on Earth 929; none of the players are ever told how long this Chaotic anomaly has been growing, Al devastated at being torn away from Amy agrees only after Roma promises to reunite them. _Source: Crisis on Earth 929; Of Spiders and Mutants._

**Omniversal Passageway Unknown Moment in Time; **Unicron prevents Omnibus' spiritual essence from following Al to enact revenge, the non-corporeal Demon Overlord begins his search for a realm capable of restoring his physical form and seems to be almost forgotten by the players involved. _Source: Star Trek The Next Generation; Home and Heartache Epilogue._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 June 23RD possibly July 5TH; **Al arrives on Earth 929 in Central Park Early Morning; he encounters Spider-Man in brief after tangling with Electro, and then is inadvertently assaulted by Professor Charles Xavier founder of the X-Men mistaken for Magneto. Under the assumed name Allan Pendragon Rutherford our intrepid hero begins his mission with the X-Men; a guest in their mansion, he is targeted by the Brotherhood under Darkholmes' control, rescues Spider-Girl by killing Shadow King, meets with Spider-Man again to help Spider-Girl, briefly encounters Lawyer Matt Murdoch and is stopped by the Brotherhood a second time along with Curt Connors AKA The Lizard before he can meet Doctor Strange. All on Earth 929 remain unaware that the current Doctor Strange is a facsimile and the real Stephen Strange is currently trapped in the Dark Dimension battling minions of Dormammu. _Source: Crisis on Earth 929 Of Spiders' and Mutants and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929 Doctor Strange Title Undecided._

**Coruscant 177 25-30 Years After A New Hope; **Master Contrelle and Callista rescue Lusa from a Vornskyr attack as the Yuuzhan Vong invasion grows into a truly epic development, Chewbacca and Anakin Solo lose their lives during the mounting war. _Source: Star Wars The New Jedi Order series of Novels/E-Novels and Tales of Suspense Issue Number 3 Vornskyr Attack._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 Exact Date Undetermined; **Alain is targeted by the Red Skull and an army of B.A.Ts' stolen from Cobra under the influence of Darkholme; the X-Men, Avengers and others put a stop to the attack on Manhattan and Westchester, Al kills the Red Skull be beheading him with his Lightsaber. Invited to an evening affair by Tony Stark Al and Rogue begin to slowly discover their mutual attraction for one another is more then just hormones, Wilson Fisk, Norman Osborn and Peter Parker are notable characters of Earth 929 also present at the unveiling.  
Venom and Carnage both attack due to Darkholme once again influencing events; Al, Spider-Man and Iron-Man fend them off, days later a team of X-Men, Spider-Man and Spider-Girl face them on the Brooklyn Bridge. Venom flees after Cletus Kasady is killed and the Carnage symbiote captured, Cobra owes Al a debt due to events surrounding Red Skull; Al enlists their aid at this point in time in finding answers to this entire mess.  
Eric Raymond sells out Gabor Oil to the Decepticons as Misfits' Music closes due to Bankruptcy; Al leaves New York and winds up in Los Angeles at Starlight Mansion, Jerrica and the others take him in, during his stay he meets Ricochet, Vixen and Synergy three Maximals from the Axalon as it turns out. Kills Spectro, Spyglass and Viewfinder with help from Cyclops and Jean, begins actively interacting with the Autobots, thwarts a kidnapping attempt, brokers deals with Cobra, the Autobots and Q, visits with Amy, helps young Nancy Cates deal with her mutation and takes the next step in his relationship with Rogue.  
Following major events surrounding Cobra, GIJoe the Transformers and their God Primus the Crisis of Earth 929 begins to reach the boiling point; Darkholme is ousted after pitting the Brotherhood against the Sinister Six; meanwhile Unicron and Tarantulas take the souls of the humans Cletus Kasady, Serpentor and the Red Skull AKA Johann Schmidt and once purging all traces of their past lives has been accomplished, Unicron uses said souls all of whom were directly or indirectly killed in their mortal life by Al to reformat and create the sparks of the Predacons Cicadacon, Seaclamp and Ramhorn; destined to become the Tripredacus Council and a future thorn in Rutherfords' side. _Source: Crisis on Earth 929: Avengers' Assemble and Crisis on Earth 929: Rampage in NYC and Crisis on Earth 929: Sea of Turmoil and Crisis on Earth 929: Terror Approaches and Crisis on Earth 929: More Than Meets the Eye._

**Earth X-1007 Circa 1942; **Warren Meers; having been forgotten by all journeys to this point in time of Earth X-1007 after engineering the deaths of numerous heroes including Superman and Batman, his goal is to enslave an army of heroines to conquer the Omniverse, but in truth Q is manipulating him to create a future team of Super Villains to face off against Alain and a future team of Super Heroes the young man will lead in service of Roma called Salvation, Warren's first target for slave training is Wonder Woman at a time when she is young and inexperienced… Harbinger; a new Demonic threat is also born due to Warren's incompetence and the beginnings of a truly dangerous team of adversaries is set in motion. _Source: Untitled Primarily Adult Story featuring Wonder Woman and Warren AKA Zeus._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 Month of August leading possibly into September; **Alain faces a plethora of events and villains as the Final Chaos draws nigh, The Sinister Six, Cobra, Darkholme, the Decepticons, the Green Goblin and others become embroiled in the massive up-surgence of mounting Chaos until at last, after killing his Earth 929 counterpart and facing down a Decepticon threat of spectacular origins Al engages in battle with Talia… Many casualties occur, but in the end Chaos is averted and the Infinity Engine destroyed; forced to leave Rogue and Amy behind Al moves on to conclude his training and hopefully return to Earth Prime at last.  
Other events entangled within this time include a brief encounter between Spider-Man, Spider-Girl and the Green Goblin, a battle with the Decepticons involving the Dinobots, and the mystical confrontation between Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Dormammu, Mephistopheles and the Doctor Strange Doppelganger all within the Dark Dimension. The Fantastic Four are also believed to have been taken out of the game due to a development in the Negative Zone, but remains unconfirmed. _Source: Crisis on Earth 929: Final Chaos and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929: Spider-Girl Laugh of the Goblin and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929: Doctor Strange Untitled Tale and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929: Coda._

**Coruscant 177 25-30 Years After A New Hope; **Al arrives on Mon Cal and briefly interacts with the Solos' and Skywalkers' before Master Contrelle, Callista and Lusa arrive to take him to Mustafar; whereupon he completes his training, masters Justice and… _Source: Star Wars The New Jedi Order: Perspective and Star Wars The New Jedi Order: Potential._

**Earth Prime Year 2003 September 13TH; **Alain Albert-Joseph Desrochers returns home and begins remodeling his bedroom; Master Contrelle has accompanied him and the Force is no longer a part of her as she begins a new life on Earth Prime, in Hell Lucifer feels his presence, Jen and Christine talk briefly on the phone and Reanne prays for divine intervention. Meanwhile The Secretary has a special meeting with two individuals; Kal-El of a different Earth-Prime and Dawn Summers of Earth Hellmouth 75, the purpose of this meeting with Dawn Summers is never revealed. Other parties also briefly show interest in young Alain of Earth-Prime among them The Doctor, Daniel Jackson of SG-1 and Mxyzptlx. _Source: Star Wars The New Jedi Order: Potential and Interlude._

**Earth Hellmouth 36 Timeframe Uncertain; **Omnibus's spiritual essence escapes the Omniverse passageways and begins to amass mystical energy to return; Alain is sent to aid the Slayer in stopping Omnibus once and for all, events must happen quickly for Earth Prime is soon to be in dire need of Alain its' Chosen Champion. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Meets Sithicus._

**Earth Prime Year 2003 September 14TH; **Jennifer converses with Christine her best friend because of the phone call to Alain; q bears witness to this moment and amuses himself with the thought of the two coming together at last. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Meets Sithicus Interlude._

**Earth X-1007 Circa 2005;** Warren targets his next victims Kara Zor-El Alias Supergirl and Kara Zor-L Alias Power Girl to continue enslaving his army. _Source: Unwritten/Untitled Primary Adult Oriented Story Featuring Warren._

**Earth Hellmouth 36 Timeline Uncertain; **With Omnibus now destroyed completely and no longer a threat; Alain is approached by Whistler in order to assist the Powers that Be in restoring the Balance destroyed by Omnibus' unwitting presence on this version of Buffy's world. In order to accomplish this task; Alain must resurrect Tara McClay using Federation technology and drugs proven to work on others in the past and also recruit the long absent Scooby Oz the Reluctant Werewolf as it were to aid him in the city of Tokyo, Japan. It is revealed by the Sensei of the Light Dojo that ancient spirits once walked the Earth long ago; these spirits not destined to return until after the Slayer managed to defeat the First Evil and seal Sunnydale's Hellmouth manage to escape thanks to Omnibus and set into motion the rise once again of the Elementals.  
Al must convince a young Chinese girl by the name of Mei Lin that she is the Chosen One; destined to lead a team of four young women against the forces of the Spirits themselves, with the aid of Oz and Tara he must find a way to rewrite what Fate truly has in store for all. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dark Alliances and Partially Buffy the Vampire Slayer Inherent Evil._

**Earth 929 Year 2004 April 28TH; **Amy Chelerise Rutherford holds a training session with Professor Charles Xavier in order to expand her telepathic skills. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dark Alliances Interlude._

**Limbo Timeline Uncertain: Possible Future Events Revealed; **The Dark God Unicron holds a brief conference with Mega Zarak discussing events not yet part of the official Timeline; Mega Zarak informs his Master that Nemesis Prime has managed to procure the Dark Matrix on Eternia thanks to the unwitting assistance of young Alain Desrochers. Unicron leaves to harness the powers of Chaos being unleashed during the Autobot/Decepticon Conflict on Cybertron 5089 in order to restore his Planetary Body while trapped in a smaller form; The Universe Conflict is mentioned in brief, the reasons for this upset in the Timeline are uncertain, but information regarding the events surrounding Alain on Eternia and dealing with Nemesis Prime are most definitely intended to be a Future event as of yet Unchronicled by The Secretary. It is possible Uatu the Watcher parted the veils of Time and Space in order to gain further understanding on the Chaos Bringers interest in the Young Man from Earth Prime. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dark Alliances Interlude._

**More as Follows I trust this has helped straighten out every aspect of the Chrysalis story featuring Alain Desrochers; Anything that is Unwritten will take some time for me to get around to if I write them myself I may enlist the aid of fellow Fanfic Authors who know characters like Ghost Rider, The Silver Surer and all that way better then me.**


End file.
